Chiese di Venezia. Nuove prospettive di ricerca
The church and hospital of San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti: Art, Benefaction, Care, Devotion, Education
International Conference
Scientific coordination: Alexandra Bamji, Linda Borean, Laura Moretti

The Studium Generale Marcianum is delighted to announce a conference on the church and hospital of San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti in Venice. This is the third conference of the project ‘Chiese di Venezia: nuove prospettive di ricerca’ (The churches of Venice: new research perspectives), which examines Venice’s churches and their histories from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives. Each conference stimulates new avenues of research, the results of which are published by the Marcianum Press in an edited collection of essays.

The Mendicanti was one of the most important charitable institutions of early modern Venice, and its activity had architectural, artistic, charitable, devotional, educational, medical, and musical dimensions. The conference explores the evolution of this institution from its foundation at the end of the sixteenth century, via the construction of the church (begun in 1633), to the eighteenth-century transformations of the two wings of the building. The conference evaluates the location of the institution within the urban environment, and the broader significance of its architectural form. The governors of the Mendicanti, alongside key benefactors, played an active role in determining and financing the façade and internal decoration of the church. Close attention will be paid to the altars and the Dolfin, Cappello and Mora funerary monuments within the church. The conference will also examine how the institution was shaped by the religious context, and will interrogate the influences of the Counter-Reformation and the Venetian Republic on devotional activity and charitable practices. The use of space – for liturgical, medical, educational, and musical purposes – will be another central theme. The Mendicanti was renowned for its girls’ choir, and provided opportunities for innovations in musical performance. Through three interdisciplinary sessions entitled ‘Mendicanti: portrait of an institution’, ‘Urban context, architecture, decoration’ and ‘Use’, this conference will highlight the civic, religious, architectural, and musical importance of the Mendicanti in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Venice.

Full details of the programme can be found on the conference website (http://issr.marcianum.it/content/convegno-chiesa-dei-mendicanti-2013), and the conference will conclude with a guided tour of the church.


PROGRAMME

6 December 2013,
STUDIUM GENERALE MARCIANUM (CAMPO DELLA SALUTE), AUDITORIUM

9.30-13.00 The Mendicanti: Portrait of an institution
Chair: Linda Borean (Università degli Studi di Udine)
Opening of the conference: Brian E. Ferme (Studium Generale Marcianum)
Institutional greetings: Giovanna Damiani (Soprintendenza Polo Museale), Renata Codello (Soprintendenza BAP Venezia e Laguna), Giordano Zeli (Fondazione Svizzera Pro Venezia)
Introductory remarks: Gianmario Guidarelli (Studium Generale Marcianum-Università di Padova)

10.00-10.30 ALEXANDRA BAMJI, LINDA BOREAN, LAURA MORETTI
Introduction to the conference

10.30-11.00 JOHN HENDERSON (Birkbeck, University of London)
I Mendicanti e la politica assistenziale italiana

11.00-11.30 ALEXANDRA BAMJI (University of Leeds)
I protagonisti dei Mendicanti tra cura e carità

Discussion

11.45-12.00 Break

12.00-12.30 ISABELLA CECCHINI (Venezia)
Lusso e mendicità. Benefattori non patrizi nella Venezia del Seicento

12.30-13.00 AGATA BRUSEGAN (IRE, Venezia)
L’archivio dell’ospedale dei Mendicanti: un ritratto storico e potenzialità di ricerca

Discussion

15.00-18.30 Urban context, architecture, decoration
Chair: Laura Moretti (University of St Andrews)

15.00-15.30 ELENA SVALDUZ (Università degli studi di Padova)
“Contra il dispiacer del morire”: i Mendicanti, le larghe paludi e il nuovo ampliamento urbano

15.30-16.00 DULCIA MEIJERS (Emerson College European Center)
La formazione di una nuova tipologia ospedaliera a Venezia: il caso della chiesa e dell’ospedale di San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti nella sua fabbrica, forma e funzione

Discussion

16.15-16.30 Break

16.30-17.00 MASSIMO FAVILLA (Venezia) e RUGGERO RUGOLO (Università Ca' Foscari, Venezia)
Gli altari della chiesa di San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti: storia e devozione

17.00-17.30 LINDA BOREAN (Università degli Studi di Udine)
“Una memoria di pietre fine et belle”. Il monumento di Lorenzo Dolfin

17.30-18.00 MEREDITH CROSBIE (University of St Andrews)
I monumenti funebri: le tombe Cappello e Mora

Discussion


7 December 2013,
OSPEDALE CIVILE SS. GIOVANNI E PAOLO
(CAMPO SS. GIOVANNI E PAOLO), SALA SAN DOMENICO

9.30-11.30 Use
Chair: Alexandra Bamji (University of Leeds)
Introduction: dott. Giuseppe Dal Ben, direttore generale dell’Azienda Ulss 12 veneziana

9.45-10.15 NATALINO BONAZZA (Studium Generale Marcianum)
La cura pastorale dell’Ospedale dei Mendicanti affidata ai padri Somaschi in prospettiva storico-teologica

10.15-10.45 HELEN GEYER (Institut für Musikwissenschaft Weimar-Jena)
Fra tradizione, consuetudine e innovazione. I Mendicanti: un laboratorio di sperimentazione musicale

10.45-11.15 LAURA MORETTI (University of St Andrews)
Nel ‘virtuoso Parnaso’. Allestimenti e uso degli spazi nella chiesa di San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti

Discussion

11.30-11.45 Break

11.45-13.30: Round table: Interpretations and directions for future research
Chair: Bernard Aikema (Università di Verona)
Participants: JANE STEVENS-CRAWSHAW (Oxford Brookes University), NELLI-ELENA VANZAN MARCHINI (Venezia), ELISABETTA MOLTENI (Università Ca’ Foscari-Venezia), MATEJ KLEMENČIČ (Università di Lubiana), GIUSEPPE ELLERO (IRE, Venezia), SANDRO BORDIN (Venice International and Quality Hospital), PIERGIUSEPPE GILLIO (Conservatorio di Novara)

CHIESA DI SAN LAZZARO DEI MENDICANTI E SCUOLA GRANDE DI SAN MARCO (FONDAMENTA DEI MENDICANTI)

15.00-18.00 Guided tour by the students of CdL in Beni Culturali dell’ISSR “San Lorenzo Giustiniani”. Entrance from the fondamenta dei Mendicanti. Reservations are required for the guided tours, which have a limited number of places. Reservations can be made by completing the webform in the section dedicated to the conference at www.marcianum.it. It is also possible to make a reservation by phone:
3408811456 (from 15 November to 5 December, Mon-Tue-Thu-Fri, 11.00-13.00).


There is no registration charge for the conference, but space is limited.