Much of the current design for Santa Maria del Giglio, also known as Santa Maria Zobenigo after the family that founded the church in the ninth century, dates to a 1680-83 renovation by the architect Giuseppi Sardi, working under the patronage of Antonio Barbaro. (...)
Much of the current design for Santa Maria del Giglio, also known as Santa Maria Zobenigo after the family that founded the church in the ninth century, dates to a 1680-83 renovation by the architect Giuseppi Sardi, working under the patronage of Antonio Barbaro. Barbaro, an admiral in the Venetian navy and a member of the aristocratic Barbaro family, died in 1679, leaving a sizeable sum of 30,000 ducats for the rebuilding of the church. The building’s Baroque façade pays tribute to the generosity of its patron with a series of reliefs depicting members of the Barbaro family, and a centrally situated sculpture of the admiral himself. Justus le Court, the Flemish sculptor whose work adorns the building, also incorporated carved maps of Barbaro’s various military postings, scenes from naval battles, and allegorical figures like Honor and Virtue into his design. Religious iconography is noticeably absent from the façade. Inside, canvases by Antonio Zanchi, Tintoretto, Rubens, and a number of other Venetian masters decorate the walls and ceiling. The church is located in the Campo Santa Maria Zobenigo, west of the Piazza San Marco.
