The church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli in Venice is a Renaissance era church designed and built between 1481-1489 in the short span of eight years by the architect Pietro Lombardo and sons. The church is distinctive in many regards, including its distinctly Venetian character what with its barrel vault shape and large Byzantine influenced dome. On the interior too we find a single nave with a mezzanine-like, raised presbytery -- a style influenced by and inherited from older churches with their altars and presbyteries that had been built over top of a confessio.
As interesting as all of these things are, it is the beautiful polychrome marbles found both inside and out of the church that I really wanted to draw your attention to today. In these we can see the strong influence of the Roman and Constantinoplian traditions, characterized as they were by their use of colourful marble revetments, discs of porphyry and intricately carved ornamental details.
So with that in mind, I'd simply invite you to take a few moments and enjoy the noble beauty of this Renaissance church.
EXTERIOR
INTERIOR
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| The triumphal arch |
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| The main altar and its balustrade |
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| The ambo |
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| Details from the presbytery |
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| Base of the column of the triumphal arch. |
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| The pendentives |
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| Detail of the church pavement |
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| Detail of the balustrade at the upper edge of the presbytery. |
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