Museum Planet

San Giorgio Maggiore - Venice, Italy
San Giorgio Maggiore

The Benedictine Monks who build the Basilica San Giorgio Maggiore had been active on this 'cypress island' since at least the 10th Century. These Benedictines were cenobites who lived in a monastery on the island living out life according to the rules of Saint Benedict. Actually there were 72 rules that Benedict laid out which dictated their lives to them, ranging from chapter 20 of the rules which said that prayer in common should be short, to rule 33 which forbade the private possession of anything without the permission of the abbot., who supplied their necessities. The present San Giorgio Maggiore is at least the fifth church built on the island by the Benedictines. They turned to the architect Palladio to design the church for them. He was a somewhat radical choice at the time, because the Benedictines had become iconoclasts and were in the process of rejecting all that had come before in the realm of the medieval and gothic. As we shall see later, the monks even went so far as to destroy the tombs of Doges who were buried on the island. Saint Benedict himself spent most of his life on Monte Cassino which was tragically bombed in WWII.

Palladio
b. Andrea di Pietro della Gondola, Padua 1508 - d. Vicenza 1580
He began his career studying to be a stonecutter and mason. Gian Giorgio Trissino, a leading scholar Palladio met in Vicenza, became his mentor and promoter, introducing him to Classical models in architecture, philosophy, and even his nickname, which derives from Pallas Athena. He is best known for the villas and palaces designed for wealthy families along the Brenta River on the mainland and other cities near Venice. In Venice, his work began on his design for San Giorgio Maggiore in 1566. Unofficially, he followed Jacopo Sansovino as chief municipal architect in Venice in 1570. The church of Il Redentore was begun in 1576. A third church, St. Lucia, was demolished to build the railroad station. He lobbied for, but never got, commissions to design civic buildings in Venice. He continued to work on projects in and around Vicenza. He published his four volumes entitled 'I quattro libri dell'architettura' starting in1570. They included meticulous woodcuts of his own buildings and those from Classical antiquity. His models were adopted by Vicenzo Scamozzi after his death, and the architect Inigo Jones interpreted some of his designs in England. Palladio's Classical architectual ideals were widely promoted until the late 19th Century.