User:Venrenerd/San Moisè, Venice

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“The Chiesa di San Moisè (or San Moisè Profeta) is a Baroque style, Roman Catholic church in Venice, Italy.” It was one of the first churches in Venice to embrace the open-nave floor plan and is renowned for its Baroque facade as one of the churches of the Vicariate of San Marco-Castello. It is one of few Catholic churches in the world named after Moses.

History

The first church to sit on the current site of San Moisè was built during the 8th century. It was originally dedicated to the Egyptian-Roman martyr St. Victor of Marseilles and went through at least one round of renovations and rebuilding prior to the 11th century.

After the original church was destroyed in a citywide fire in 1105 that occurred in Venice in 1105, the current church of San Moisè began to be built on the same site. Led and primarily funded by Venetian noblemen Moisè Venier, the building was completed before the end of the 12th century. The church was later named after St. Moses, the notable biblical figure from the Old Testament of the Bible who also serves as Moisè Venier’s namesake.   Like the Byzantines, the Venetians often considered Old Testament prophets as canonized saints, hence the dedication and reference to Moses as St. Moses.

After the 12th century, the church went through multiple periods of renovations and rebuilding, the most drastic of them all occurring in the seventeenth century. Following the establishment of the Council of Trent, and then current Counter-Reformation movement that was occurring simultaneously within the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of San Moisè was rebuilt to adopt the demure interior trends of the Counter-Reformation and the ornate exterior trends of the Baroque era. Notable changes from this period include the transition to an open nave and high altar inside the church, and the all-marble, ornately decorated, Baroque facade.

The Church of San Moisè remained a parish of Venice until the fall of the Venetian Republic by Napoleon at the end of the eighteenth century and into the nineteenth century. As a parish of Venice, it fell under the rule of the patriarchs of Basilica of San Marco. Due to its proximity to the Piazza San Marco, the church often participated in multiple functions of San Marco including its processions, which originates back to its pre-Napoleonic time as well.

In 1967, San Moisè joined the Vicariate of San Marco-Castello. The other churches within the parish are Santa Maria Zobenigo, San Fantin, Santa Croce degli Armeni and the Basilica of San Marco itself.

Exterior

The elaborate Baroque façade, dating from 1668, is profusely decorated with sculpture. Some of its sculptures are generally attributed to the German artist Heinrich Meyring. The architectural design is attributed to Alessandro Tremignon, with patronage by Vincenzo Fini, whose bust is found over the central entry door, and the Fini Family.

There are carved garlands, flowers, and stones that frame the Corinthian columns of the facade from top to bottom. The three portals of the facade correspond to the interior floor plan, reflecting the position of the high altar and the 2 chapels at the end of the building. Above the three portals rest the busts of the brothers of the Fini family, Vicenzo and Girolamo, and the bust of Girolamo’s son, Vincenzo. The lower level’s height was extended to make room for the busts, crests, and representations of the Fini Family as patron’s of the Church of San Moise. Many statues can also be found on other levels of the facade. Some of the statues represent different values promoted by the Fini family such as Virtue, Honor, and Honesty, while other statues depicted different biblical figures and motifs such as the Holy Trinity. Notably, the biblical statues stand at the highest level of the church, with a statue of Moses centrally placed at the peak of the facade’s double pediment.

The high amount of decoration catered to Vicenzo Fini and the Fini Family on the Church of San Moise was controversial at the time in Venice. Statues in public spaces were forbidden in Venice, but by putting his bust on the façade of a church, Vicenzo Fini circumvented this ordinance, and displayed his wealth and his recent addition to the Libro d'Oro of Venetian aristocracy.

Interior

Prior to the 17th century mass reconstruction of San Moisè, the interior plan of the church included the nave and two flanking aisles, which then led to the high altar and wooden choir at the end of the church. The nave, aisles, and high altar were surrounded by 2 rows of columns, one of each aisle of the hall.

Much of the earlier versions of the Church of San Moisè included many wooden pieces, but the eventual decomposition of these wooden pieces (such as the altar of St. Jerome) led priests and patriarchs alike to demand for a total renovation of the church. The church's renovation began in 1632, as church leaders worked towards increasing the overall safety of the church, and raising the ornamentation of the Church's features to match their divine purposes (e.g. the high altar) and the contemporary cultural era of the time, the Baroque Era.

After the reconstruction, the columns and the wooden choir were removed, which transformed the nave into one open square hall and shifted the focus of the interior on the high altar. The Church of San Moisè was one of the first churches in Venice to have an open auditorium-like hall, reflecting the effects of the Counter-Reformation and the Catholic Church’s renewed focus on spirituality and the messages during Mass. The only other features included at the end of the hall are the chapels of the Sacrament and St. Anthony flanking either side of the high altar.

The high altar experienced a number of changes and additions, drastically increasing the ornamentation of the altarpiece. Meyring and Tremignon added a large, mannerist sculptural set piece in the center depicting Moses at Mount Sinai receiving the Tablets. On either side of the altar includes two panels depicting other parts of the story of Moses, with the left panel depicting the encounter between Moses and Jesus in the New Testament and the right panel by painter Girolamo Brusaferro, where he painted The Crossing of the Red Sea. The altarpiece of the Deposition (1636) was painted by Niccolò Roccatagliata in collaboration with Sebastiano. It also has a Washing of the Feet by Tintoretto,[1] and a Last Supper by Palma il Giovane.

Other additions from the seventeenth century reconstruction included the barrel-vaulted ceiling and its paintings of Moses by Nicolò Bambini. Additional paintings added throughout the Church gave references to the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. (102) and were painted by artists Jacopo Guarana, Domenico Beverenza, Antonio Molinari (114) Pasquale Rossi, and Giuseppe Diamantini.

Post-seventeenth century additions include a canvas painted by Michangelo Morlaiter, a pulpit, and updates to the large baptismal font arrangement framed by marble columns and cast-iron fencing.

References

1. Trend, Faith Charlotte (2018). Church design in counter reformation Venice. University of Birmingham. Ph.D. https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/8329/