Chiesa di Santa Maria del Giglio

The Church of Santa Maria del Giglio, also known as Santa Maria Zobenigo, is distinguished by a Baroque façade built as a monument to the naval career of Antonio Barbaro. Inside, paintings by Tintoretto and Rubens sit among works accumulated over several centuries.

Why it matters

The present church was rebuilt in the later seventeenth century with funds left by Antonio Barbaro, a captain and commander for the Venetian Republic. Giuseppe Sardi designed the elaborate façade, where the five Barbaro brothers appear in sculpture above reliefs representing places associated with Antonio’s military career. The façade turns the family’s public service into a civic monument. Inside, Tintoretto’s four Evangelists, originally painted as organ shutters, and a Madonna and Child with Saint John by Peter Paul Rubens are among the best-known works.

What to notice

The façade reads from top to bottom as a family memorial: Antonio Barbaro and his brothers represented in sculpture, with relief views of cities and fortresses below. The single nave has a flat ceiling with large canvases by Antonio Zanchi and an organ gallery decorated with Angeli Musicanti. At the high altar, Tintoretto’s four Evangelists—painted in the mid-1550s for the organ—were later moved behind the altar. The church also contains a Way of the Cross painted in 1755–1756 by Francesco Zugno, Giambattista Crosato, Gaspare Diziani and Jacopo Marieschi, along with works by Alessandro Vittoria, Sebastiano Ricci, Piazzetta, Palma il Giovane and Gian Maria Morlaiter.

Context and history

Tradition associates the church with an apparition of the Virgin to Saint Magnus; the name Zobenigo comes from the family associated with the earlier church. The present building reflects the late-seventeenth-century fashion for commemorative façades, funded here by Barbaro’s will. The interior’s works accumulated through successive family and confraternity altars. The church’s 1913 Mascioni organ is set within an eighteenth-century case decorated with gilded trophies.