Chiesa dei SS Giovanni e Paolo

Who does brick Gothic best? When the Dominicans undertook the 100-year effort to build Zanipolo in 1333 to rival the Franciscans’ Chiesa diSanta MariaGloriosa dei Frari, the church stirred passions and partisanship more common to Serie A football than architecture. Both have red-brick facades with high-contrast detailing in white stone. But since Zanipolo’s facade remains unfinished, the Frari won a decisive early decision over Zanipolo with its soaring grace – and with Titian’s Assunta altarpiece front and centre, the Frari seemed impossible to surpass. Over the centuries, Zanipolo may have at least tied the score with the sheer scale and variety of its masterpieces. For starters, it has more dogi – 25 of them, in lavish tombs by such notable sculptors as Nino Pisano and Tullio Lombardo. In the transept, a vast 15th-century Murano stained-glass window is currently undergoing restoration to illuminate designs by Bartolomeo Vivarini and Girolamo Mocetto. And in the CappelladelRosario, off the north arm of the transept, Paolo Veronese’s own Assunta ceiling depicts the rosy Virgin ascending a staggering staircase to be crowned by cherubs, while angels flip with the joy of it all. Given masterpieces by Bellini, Canova and Titian at the Frari, the artistic match is tough – not to mention the Chiesa della Madonna dell’Orto as a contender for brick Gothic grandeur and Tintorettos – but Zanipolo shows a lot of heart in its artistic game. Guido Reni’s baroque painting of San Giuseppe is a rare expression of holy father-son bonding, showing Joseph exchanging adoring looks with baby Jesus. The chapel dome on the southwest end of the nave boasts Giambattista Lorenzetti’s Jesus the Navigator, where Jesus scans the skies like an anxious Venetian sea captain. The acknowledged master of heartstring-pulling tenderness, Giovanni Bellini, has a polyptych of San Vincenzo Ferreri (St Vincent Ferrer) over the second altar of the right aisle.