Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista

The Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista is a confraternity building located in the San Polo sestiere of the Italian city of Venice. Founded in the 13th century by a group of flagellants it was later to become one of the five Scuole Grandi of Venice. These organisations provided a variety of charitable functions in the city as well as becoming patrons of the arts. The Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista is notable for housing a relic of the true cross and for the series of paintings it commissioned from a number of famous Venetian artists depicting Miracles of the Holy Cross. No longer in the school, these came into public ownership during the Napoleonic era and are now housed in the Gallerie dell'Accademia. The scuola is open to visitors on a limited number of days, detailed on the official website.

Founded in 1261, San Giovanni Evangelista is the second oldest scuola in Venice. Though scuola developed a primary meaning of "school", in Venice these organisations retain their medieval Latin meaning of confraternities, social organisations founded on spiritual principles. Their main buildings were typically used as meeting and assembly halls, and for the distribution of charity. The founders of San Giovanni were a confraternity of flagellants who took part in religious ceremonies, whipping their backs and spraying blood onto the pavements as they processed through the city. This practice was outlawed in the city of Venice in the same year the scuola was founded.

In 1369 Philip de Mezières (also known as Filippo Maser), the Chancellor of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Cyprus, gave to the school a piece of the true cross which it still owns to this day. The presence of this relic brought about a transformation and helped the scuola become a rich and powerful organisation, bringing in wealthy and powerful members to the confraternity, with their donations and bequests.

A reliquary was constructed to house the relic and this was soon after connected with a miracle that reportedly took place in Venice during the period 1370-82. According to contemporary accounts, when accidentally dropped into a canal during a congested procession the relic did not sink but hovered over the water, evading those trying to save it. This continued until Andrea Vendramin (grandfather of the only Vendramin doge, also named Andrea) dived in and retrieved it. This was the same Andrea who, as head of the scuola, had been presented with the relic in 1369. This miracle was later depicted by Vittorio Carpaccio, Gentile Bellini and other artists in a series of paintings commissioned for the scuola. Nearly 200 years later the reliquary was the focal point of the Vendramin family portrait by Titian, now in the National Gallery, London, showing the prestige the events had given to the family.

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