Scuola Grande dei Carmini

The last-founded of Venice's eight Scuole Grandi occupies a Carmelite confraternity house in Dorsoduro. Its Chapter Hall is crowned by nine canvases that Giambattista Tiepolo painted between 1739 and 1749, centred on the Virgin giving the scapular to Saint Simon Stock.

Why it matters

The confraternity was founded on 1 March 1594 and recognised as a Scuola Piccola by the Council of Ten on 22 September 1597. It became a Scuola Grande only in 1767, the last of Venice's eight great confraternities. In 1626 it assembled its seat from dilapidated former Guoro family buildings near the Carmelite church. On 21 December 1739 the chapter resolved to renew its ceiling, then dominated by Padovanino's Assumption, and commissioned Tiepolo. He presented two designs on 19 January 1740; the second was chosen. His nine canvases express Marian virtues and devotion to the scapular.

What to notice

The Chapter Hall sits directly above the chapel, with windows on two sides. Tiepolo's eight side canvases were completed in 1743 and the central one in 1749. The central Apparition of the Virgin to Saint Simon Stock shows the kneeling Carmelite receiving the scapular above open tombs and souls in Purgatory; the surrounding scenes include an angel catching a mason who has fallen from scaffolding and personified Virtues in the corners. Abbondio Stazio's 1740 stuccoes were coloured and gilded by Carpoforo Mazzetti Tencalla at Tiepolo's request. The hall's architecture is attributed to Baldassare Longhena. A gilded triumphal arch frames Bernardino Falcone's white-marble Virgin of 1659; Antonio Zanchi's miracle canvases of about 1665 and two Adorations by Gregorio Lazzarini from 1704 hang on the walls. Padovanino's Assumption of 1635–38, formerly on the Chapter Hall ceiling, is in the Sala dell'Albergo.

Context and history

Devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel and the scapular shaped the brotherhood's identity. Its rooms also preserve works by Ambrogio Bon, including an Adoration of the Shepherds from 1697, and Antonio Balestra, whose canvases date to 1703. In 1797, when the Republic fell, the Carmini was the most recently founded of the eight Scuole Grandi. A Napoleonic decree suppressed it in 1807; the institution was later reconstituted and continues its devotional and charitable tradition. The Albergo served the governing body, while the Chapter Hall accommodated the assembly; the confraternity's mariegola, standard and other treasures are also preserved there.