Chapter XXX: Section XV: Giudecca--The Redentore--S. Trovaso

A steamer leaves the Riva degli Schiavoni every hour for the S. Croce Pier on the island of the Giudecca where stands Palladio’s masterpiece, the plague church of the Redentore de’ Cappucini. The island, formerly known as Spinalunga was assigned (_giudicata_) in the ninth century as a place of banishment to certain of the nobles implicated in the murder of Doge Tradenico. Hence according to some authorities its name: by others it is believed to have been the ancient Jewry.

The fine proportion and symmetry make the interior of the church even more impressive than that of S. Giorgio Maggiore. In the sacristy are three early Venetian paintings once assigned to Giov. Bellini, now generally attributed: (1) Virgin with the Sleeping Jesus attended by two Angels to Alvise Vivarini (p. 196); (2) Virgin and Child with SS. John and Catherine and (3) Virgin and Child with SS. Mark and Francis to Bissolo. The last is by some critics attributed to Pasqualino, a feeble imitator of Giov. Bellini.

We may return by the steamer that crosses every few minutes to the fondamenta of the Zattere (rafts) so called because here the great rafts of timber from the Alps were and still are landed, and follow the rio di S. Trovaso, on which is a most picturesque _squero_ (boat builder’s) purchased by the municipality of Venice to save it from destruction, to the church of S. Trovaso. The church contains two Tintorettos of interest. At the high altar is his Temptation of St Anthony. “A small and very carefully finished picture, marvellously temperate and quiet in treatment,” says Ruskin, who describes the painting in the Venetian Index. There is little tranquillity in the other picture, the Last Supper, in the L. transept. The whole scene is full of “bustle and tumult” and in nearly all its details the composition is coarse and irreverent. The moment chosen is when Christ has uttered the words, “One of you shall betray Me.” An overturned rush-bottom chair is in the foreground. One of the Apostles is leaning down to fill his glass from a large fiasco of wine on the floor; another is in the act of lifting the lid of a soup kettle; a cat is lapping up some of the soup. The solemn scene is degraded to the level of a vulgar beanfeast.