SAN ROCCO’S ANNUNCIATION AND THE TINTORETTO OF DOGE GRIMANI

As part of the celebrations for the 1600th anniversary of the mythical foundation of the city, the Guild (Scuola Grande), in collaboration with the Veneto Regional Council and the patronage of the Patriarchate of Venice offers, to Venetians and non-Venetians, a short but evocative tour on the theme of the Annunciation. The exhibition (curated by M. Agnese Chiari Moretto Wiel and Giovanni Valagussa) will be divided between two venues: Palazzo Ferro Fini, where, for the occasion, the mosaic with tiny tiles, or tesserae, by Giovanni Novello (1516-1522) will be exhibited, and the rooms of its own monumental seat will display the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary that has been represented many times by some of the greatest sixteenth-century artists: Tiziano and Tintoretto.  At the entrance to the Guild, in the Sala Terrena, is a painting that has been loaned for a few months and that will add to the significant permanent paintings depicting the Annunciation owned by the Guild: the Tintoretto canvas that belonged to Doge Pietro Grimani in the eighteenth century, which is now part of a private collection. This loan offers interesting possibilities of comparison not only with Tiziano's canvas of the same subject, placed above one of the arches of the landing of the Staircase and indicated as a model of the Grimani Annunciation, but also with the famous ‘telero’ (1581-1582) which opens the cycle of stories of the life of the Virgin, the last one created by Jacopo Tintoretto for the Guild. Going up the staircase leading to the Treasury, the visitor will be able to admire another Annunciation: the one by Tintoretto for the organ doors of the church of San Rocco (1567-1570 c.), which we once on the counter-façade of the sacred building and transferred only recently to the school. Each of these "Annunciations" presents different characters not only in the format, but also in the setting, in the layout, in the symbolic elements inserted in the composition, suggesting to the visitor interpretations that go beyond the aesthetic appreciation of the individual paintings.

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