- Read offline
- Remove ads
- Access all content
- Use the in-app Map to find sites, and add custom locations (your hotel...)
- Build a list of your own favourites
- Search the contents with full-text search functionality
- ... and more!
Santa Maria Materdomini
Prettier inside than out
Tradition has it that this church was found in the 10th century by the Zane and Cappello families. Originally dedicated to St Christina, it was rededicated to the Mother of God in 1128. In the early 16th century it was rebuilt, but of uncertain paternity (probably by Mauro Codussi, although some say Giovanni Buora), with an Istrian stone façade in dire need of a scrub, looming over a narrow lane.
But step inside: Santa Maria Materdomini has a cool grey and white Renaissance interior with half-moon clerestory windows and its own Tintoretto, The Invention of the Cross, to the left of the main altar. Its subject is the medieval Legend of the Holy Cross, only with the usual Tintorettonian twists – the ghostly white background, the glaringly anachronistic bishop and Turk in the assemblage do their best to look nonchalant. Ruskin wrote:
Image by Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls