Scuola Grande di San Marco
The Scuola building, begun by Pietro Lombardo in 1488-90 and finished by Mauro Codussi in 1490-95 is among the main works of early venetian renaissance architecture. Its main façade, located at the north of the Campo San Giovanni e Paolo square, is the counterpart to the Dominicans' church. Like other buildings with incrustations dating from the late 15th and early 16th century in Venice, like the Miracoli church and the Palazzo Contarini, the polychrome stone panelling suffered massive damages from plants and the so-called croste nere
, a dark and detachable layer caused by air pollution and subsequent corrosion of the stone. Possibly corroding iron keepers holding the stone slabs and the brick wall together are also not beneficial to the marble, verde antico and porphyry decorations.
Although felicitous restorations are seldom in Venice even today, the restoration campaign directed by Grazia Fumo of the Superintendency of Monuments and Fine Arts is surely one of them. The knowledge gained few years ago with the integral restoration of the near Santa Maria dei Miracoli church and published in the excellent book by Mario Piana and Wolfgang Wolters helped. Especially the remnants of gildings on the capitals can now be easily recognized and point out that the early renaissance in Venice was a highly polychrome architecture.
Recent photos of the Scuola Grande di San Marco. April 2005.
Click to enlarge
 Lion above the portal. |
 Ground floor cornice with porphyry disk and gilding |
 Portal wit marble incrustation and porphyry disks. Capitals and pilasters with remnants of gilding |
 trompe-l'oeil perspective, ground floor, left. |
Scholarship
- Wolters, Wolfgang, Piana, Mario: Santa Maria dei Miracoli a Venezia, Venice 2003
