Nave view, looking towards balcony
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Nave view: Moro and Kier, lithograph, 19th century, Venice, Correr Museum
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NAVE

Marble and porphyry revetments cover the interior walls of the nave from floor to ceiling. In the lower section, light gray and beige panels are framed in pink and dark gray borders. Two side doors interrupt the otherwise regular paneling. In the upper register, the revetments (which were probably added in the nineteenth century) follow a related pattern: light-colored pieces of marble are framed in dark borders. Further, the smaller marble panels from the lower story are out of phase with the panels of the upper story, and there is little coinciding rhythm and no vertical continuity between the two levels. Light streams into the nave from five windows that pierce the upper half of the nave walls on each side. Beautiful marble inlays and numerous tombstones cover the floor.

In its 500-year-history, Santa Maria dei Miracoli has undergone many changes and restorations. For example, the nineteenth-century lithograph by Moro and Kier (see below) shows side altars in the nave as well as to the right and left of the presbytery stairs. Even though these altars have since been removed, the sculptures by the sculptor Girolamo Campagna (1549 - c.1629) from Verona, which decorated the altars near the presbytery stairs, have been preserved and now stand in almost the same locations.

The staircase at the end of the nave leads to a raised chancel. The raised area to the left and right of the staircase and in front of the chancel is properly part of the nave, but it functions as part of the presbytery. This privileged section must have been reserved for special visitors and supporters of the church. The marble facing in the lower register of this area further underlines its importance: it differs from that of the chancel as well as from the rest of the nave in pattern and color.

The roof of the Miracoli does not form the ceiling. The interior of the structure is actually covered by a painted wooden barrel vault suspended from the actual roof of the building. Gilded wooden moldings create an elaborate framework for its 50 wooden panels depicting Old Testament prophets and patriarchs. The painted floral and figural decorations within the moldings mirror the marble carvings in the chancel area. Certain elements within the ceiling appear too advanced to be contemporary with the construction of the church and must be dated in the second decade of the sixteenth century. The 50 panels of prophets were executed by various artists without an overall iconographic scheme. Superintendent of Fine Arts for Venice, Giovanna Nepi Scirandegrave;, attributes certain of them to Domenico Capriolo (1494-1528) and his father-in-law and teacher Pier Maria Pennacchi (1464-1515), both of Treviso.

Photo: Media Center for Art history (top)