# San Francesco della Vigna: Interior [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [SANSOVINO, Jacopo]() - Date: 1501-1550 - Technique: Photo ## Commentary Rebuilding of the church San Francesco della Vigna was Sansovino's first ecclesiastical commission in Venice. It was a contradictory one. On the one hand, this was a project with direct ducal involvement, for Doge Andrea Gritti, whose family palace lay just in front of the church, promoted the scheme and bought the right to use the chancel as his family burial chapel, while the side chapels were purchased by the richest and most powerful noble families in the city. On the other hand, this church belonged to the austere Observant Franciscans, who wanted a design appropriate to their ascetic ideals. Sansovino turned to his native Florence, and his design is closely modeled on that of the sister church in Florence, San Salvatore al Monte, begun for the Observant Franciscans by Cronaca in 1499. From Cronaca's church Sansovino borrowed the fluted Doric capitals and plain frieze, the arched side chapels and aiseless plan, and the two-storey pilastered nave with clerestory windows. The interior retains hints of Sansovino's Tuscan origins. The plan, in the form of a Latin cross, has undergone various changes, among which are the elimination of the cupola, the extension of the nave, and the addition of the deep choir. ## Related artworks - [Allegory of Crete]() - [Allegory of Cyprus]() - [Allegory of Venice]() - [Apollo on the Loggetta]() - [Bacchus \(back view\)]() - [Bacchus \(detail\)]() - [Bacchus]() - [Baptismal Font]() - [Baptismal Font]() - [Biblioteca Marciana and Zecca]() - [Biblioteca Marciana: Exterior view]() - [Biblioteca Marciana: Exterior view]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()