_Giudecca--The Redentore--S. Trovaso_
A steamer leaves the Riva degli Schiavoni every hour for the S. Croce
Pier on the island of the Giudecca where stands Palladio’s masterpiece,
the plague church of the Redentore de’ Cappucini. The island, formerly
known as Spinalunga was assigned (_giudicata_) in the ninth century as a
place of banishment to certain of the nobles implicated in the murder of
Doge Tradenico. Hence according to some authorities its name: by others
it is believed to have been the ancient Jewry.
The fine proportion and symmetry make the interior of the church even
more impressive than that of S. Giorgio Maggiore. In the sacristy are
three early Venetian paintings once assigned to Giov. Bellini, now
generally attributed: (1) Virgin with the Sleeping Jesus attended by two
Angels to Alvise Vivarini (p. 196); (2) Virgin and Child with SS. John
and Catherine and (3) Virgin and Child with SS. Mark and Francis to
Bissolo. The last is by some critics attributed to Pasqualino, a feeble
imitator of Giov. Bellini.
We may return by the steamer that crosses every few minutes to the
fondamenta of the Zattere (rafts) so called because here the great rafts
of timber from the Alps were and still are landed, and follow the rio di
S. Trovaso, on which is a most picturesque _squero_ (boat builder’s)
purchased by the municipality of Venice to save it from destruction, to
the church of S. Trovaso. The church contains two Tintorettos of
interest. At the high altar is his Temptation of St Anthony. “A small
and very carefully finished picture, marvellously temperate and quiet in
treatment,” says Ruskin, who describes the painting in the Venetian
Index. There is little tranquillity in the other picture, the Last
Supper, in the L. transept. The whole scene is full of “bustle and
tumult” and in nearly all its details the composition is coarse and
irreverent. The moment chosen is when Christ has uttered the words, “One
of you shall betray Me.” An overturned rush-bottom chair is in the
foreground. One of the Apostles is leaning down to fill his glass from a
large fiasco of wine on the floor; another is in the act of lifting the
lid of a soup kettle; a cat is lapping up some of the soup. The solemn
scene is degraded to the level of a vulgar beanfeast.