He next directs the reader’s attention to another, smaller church “on the opposite side of the broad canal of the Giudecca. The church was built between 16, in acknowledgment of the cessation of the plague -of course to the Virgin, to whom the modern Italian has recourse in all his principal distresses, and who receives his gratitude for all principal deliverances” (10.443). Ruskin also explains that “‘Santa Maria Della Salute,’ Our Lady of Health, or of Safety, would be a more literal translation, yet not perhaps fully expressing the force of the Italian word in this case. Right: On this photograph taken from a boat that has passed the front of the church we see the church’s two towers. Left: View approaching the side with the church entrance (i.e, from the opposite angle of the picture above).
SANTA MARIA DELLA SALUTE WINDOWS
Still, says Ruskin, the building is not perfect: “The principal faults of the building are the meagre windows in the sides of the cupola, and the ridiculous disguise of the buttresses under the form of colossal scrolls the buttresses themselves being originally a hypocrisy, for the cupola is stated by Lazari to be of timber, and therefore needs none.” The Church of the Salute is farther assisted by the beautiful flight of steps in front of it down to the canal and its facade is rich and beautiful of its kind, and was chosen by Turner for the principal object in his well-known view of the Grand Canal” (11.428). These latter are exceedingly good the grace of the whole building being chiefly dependent on the inequality of size in its cupolas, and pretty grouping of the two campaniles behind them. In The Stones of Venice John Ruskin points out that Santa Maria della Salute is “one of the earliest buildings of the Grotesque Renaissance, rendered impressive by its position, size, and general proportions.
The 125 statues that adorn the exterior of Salute form a sharp contrast to the austere interior. Completed by Antonio Gaspari after Longhena's death. La Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute, Venice Architect: Baldesare Longhena.
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