Chiesa di San Giovanni in Bragora

Venice


This serene 15th-century brick church harmonises Gothic and Renaissance styles with remarkable ease, setting the tone for a young Antonio Vivaldi, who was baptised here. Look for Bartolomeo Vivarini’s 1478 Enthroned Madonna with St Andrew and John the Baptist, which shows the Madonna bouncing a delighted baby Jesus on her knee.

Bartolomeo’s nephew Alvise depicts Jesus in later years in his splendidly restored 1494 Saviour Blessing, in which Christ has a cloudlike beard and eyes that seem to follow you around the room.


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