Fortunately for the rest of the world, the glorious products of Venetian art in the sixteenth century are scattered to its four corners. Yet the energy of their makers was so prodigious that dozens of small, out-of-the-way churches in Venice are provided with altar-pieces by Bellini, Titian, Tintoretto and their able followers. There has even been a movement in recent years to return some of the paintings from museums to the churches for which they were painted: Titian’s Assumption, for example, which once more adorns I Frari, together with a great Madonna and Saints by Giovanni Bellini. One who restricts himself to the Academy Museum in Venice will miss several of the finest works.
In addition to those mentioned below, the traveller with a little time to spare will find it worth while to visit San Giovanni Crisostomo, for its late and fully developed BELLINI Group of Saints; the Church (near the School) of San Rocco for its Christ Bearing the Cross, attributed to GIORGIONE; Sta. Maria della Salute for TINTORETTO’S Marriage at Cana, and San Sebastiano for a number of works by VERONESE. The Tempest, by GIORGIONE, is one of the most important Venetian works in existence; it is shown at certain times, in the private Palazzo Giovanelli. The Ca d’Oro, another palace famous for its architecture, contains a rather over-rated group of paintings, of which the best is MANTEGNA’S St. Sebastian.