Scuola Grande dei Carmini
Scuola Grande dei Carmini
Scuola Grande dei Carmini
4.5
11:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Monday
11:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Tuesday
11:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Wednesday
11:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Thursday
11:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Friday
11:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Saturday
11:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Sunday
11:00 AM - 4:00 PM
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The area
Address
Neighborhood: Dorsoduro / Accademia
Artsy is the defining mood of this neighborhood with street artists, students, painters, sculptors, restorers, curators, historians, collectors, heirs and heiresses rubbing elbows. Peggy Guggenheim's collection, now a museum, lures chic locals for evening art aperitifs. Traditionalists and visionaries cocoon in bohemian luxury. La Salute basilica buttresses the neighborhood to the east. Gondolas bob in the morning light. The Accademia Bridge crosses the Grand Canal. A back street doubles as basketball court. Palaces house residents, or like Ca' Foscari a university, or a museum like Ca’ Rezzonico that attracts Venetians for concerts. Dorsoduro reveals its industrial roots too, in buildings converted to house university departments or exhibitions. Campo Santa Margherita bursts with youthful energy from local students. Foot traffic bustles to and from Piazzale Roma and Santa Lucia train station. Evening commuters pause for an aperitivo. Neighbors exchange confidants in a campo (square) on their way to market.
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
Popular mentions
4.5
152 reviews
Excellent
91
Very good
37
Average
7
Poor
6
Terrible
11
RonL40
Utica, NY3,708 contributions
Sep 2024 • Couples
The Scuola Grande is underrated. Located in the quieter sestiere of Dorsaduro, the unassuming confraternity building was constructed in the late sixteenth century. The interior has a host of treasures: four rooms of marvelous ceiling frescoes and panel paintings by Tiepolo, Balestra and Menescardi. A wonderful group of grisaille (monochrome gray) paintings by an associate of Tiepolo, Niccolo Bambini. Grisaille is rarely seen in Venice of the spectacular colors. The beautiful carved wood sculptures of Piazzetta. The stunning gold stucco work of Abbondio Stazio and Carpoforo Mazzetti. The Scuola is a Rococo masterpiece. A bit hidden but certainly a gem. Don't miss the Chiesa dei Carmini, adjacent -- paintings by Tintoretto and Lorenzo Lotto await.
Written November 28, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Robert P
Buckinghamshire, UK106 contributions
Feb 2022
I am not sure we would pay to see the Scuola, but we visited as part of an opera evening. Good singers, and entertaining ‘show’, we enjoyed it. Not too much, for those who do not know opera, and a very pleasant way to spend a couple of hours.
Written February 21, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
PostOfficeCruisers
Edinburgh, UK13 contributions
Jun 2024 • Couples
Quite small, 4 rooms and a staircase, and deserted when we went on a Saturday morning. The Tieppolo ceiling is wonderful, and you have peace to look as long as you like. I found the panelled archive room interesting too. A bit under-interpreted, if anything.
Written June 30, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Asiyah Noemi K
Pula, Croatia5,372 contributions
May 2024 • Family
The Scuola grande dei Carmini is situated in Dorsoduro in the heart of Venice, between Campo dei Carmini and Campo Santa Margherita, upon which its facade looks. It stands, separated by an alley, to the northeast of the church of Santa Maria dei Carmini.The Scuola is especially known for its great artistic works by Giambattista Tiepolo. Though not officially founded until the year 1594 under Doge Pasquale Cicogna, and was the last of its kind to be recognized as a Scuola Grande in 1767 by the Council of Ten. The Scuola Grande dei Carmini traces its roots to 1286, when the institution was established as one of the earliest civic and charitable confraternities in Venice. Work on the Scuola Grande continued from 1626, when the order expanded its original building, through 1668, when it acquired a second building to accommodate its growing needs. The confraternity commissioned Baldassare Longhena to redesign both structures and produce a single, unified façade for the two buildings. Longhena, whose work in Venice (including the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute) made him one of the period’s most celebrated architects, worked on the project until his death in 1682. Construction continued under Longhena’s associate, the architect Antonio Gaspari. Works by contemporary Venetian painters and sculptors decorate interior spaces, and nine ceiling canvases by Giambattista Tiepolo, completed in 1739, adorn the scuola’s Sala Capitolare ( the Chapter Hall ). A magnificent hall was used for Scuola meetings. The hall was decorated between 1664 and 1674 by Domenico Bruni. The main altar is dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, protector of the brotherhood, the painting of the altarpiece, an oil on canvas of the Venetian painter Sante Piatti, represents it.
Written November 23, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Elchimera
UK278 contributions
Mar 2014 • Couples
Tonight, 1 March, we went to see the opera and ballet concert. The organisation was terrible, the music and opera mediocre and the ballet juvenile. This was the worst concert I have every been to. It was so amateur it was funny. I recomend that you do not waste your time going to see this.
Written March 1, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
trufflesnout
Berlin, Germany268 contributions
Dec 2013 • Friends
they perform at the Scuola Grande dei Carmini, but in a side chapel. Average view, average performance. Our friends from Parma could not stop laughing. We called it "Musica in maschera - fifty years on tour". The musicians, however, played well. You can surely find a better show.
Written December 25, 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Msb2014
0 contributions
We were very excited to go but were deeply disappointed from the moment we entered the chapel. No access to the Tiepolo hall as was suggested on the site. We were driven into a hysterically lightened room with office seats and lousy acoustics. When the ridicule act started without any magic or theatrical surplus the musicians started out of tune and out of rhythm, without any enthousiasm and without charisma or a smile behind their poor Venetian masks. Just work as an obligation. But it got even worse; when the soprano and the tenor tried to sang with voices so poor that we had to avoid laughing. The soprano nor the tenor were able to play their roles properly. The soprano sang her tune as a desperate victim and the pretentious tenor sang with a voice so loud and sharp that we had to pinch our ears to survive. The Glockenspiel was out of tune, the harp was hurrying all the time, the violin was out of tune as well and her playing very, very poor. A hopeful interference from the ballerina, the act of the young danser, made the totality of the show even sadder. If it had been a performance of the second grade of a music school we woulld have sympathised with the effort. But since the tickets are so expensive we feel like we have been misled. It is disrespectful towards the music and the audience.
Maybe Venice will be drowning in time, this performance has shipwrecked already.
But this was the only disappointment in Venice,
we did enjoy the Biennale.
Michele, Joep and Norbert.
Maybe Venice will be drowning in time, this performance has shipwrecked already.
But this was the only disappointment in Venice,
we did enjoy the Biennale.
Michele, Joep and Norbert.
Written September 20, 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
CharlotteJG
Newry5 contributions
We were, what can only be described as, tricked into buying tickets for a "grand opera" show with "musicians from the world's best orchestras". On arrival at the venue, expecting a theatre, it was a small side chapel, laid out with rows of office chairs and boarded up windows. Having paid extra money for category B tickets, we were still 2 rows from the back, and by the end of the show, we were just glad we hadn't forked out the FIFTY euros for seats a mere 3 rows in front of us. We cringed from start to finish, with mediocre music, shrill attempts at opera singing, and barely-there ballet. To top it off, the last act involved audience participation, which left us feeling like we'd been watching a pantomime. Very poorly run show, and false advertising beyond belief. It was a night of our holiday totally wasted, along with our money. The most enjoyment we got out of it was seeing other people enter the doorway expecting a grand theatre, and seeing their faces drop as ours did on discovering they'd paid through their nose for not much more than a school play. I would not recommend this attraction AT ALL. I was disgusted at the experience.
Written August 1, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
John S
Uxbridge, UK1,070 contributions
Jun 2019 • Couples
This isn’t a critique of the events that take place in here. I presume the Scuola simply rents the space and has little or nothing to do with the artistic content of the various events. I will therefore limit my comments to the building itself and the artworks within.
One of the criticisms levelled at Venice is the crowds. Find yourself around the Rialto, or St. Mark’s and you will understand why. Rialto Bridge, (tick!)…St Mark’s Square, (tick)…Doge’s Palace, (tick) – you get the drift. However, there are places within this beautiful, tourist-strangled city, that are capable of astonishing you and Scuola Grande dei Carmini is one of them. However, before visiting you should ask yourself a question, “Am I really interested in the art? Or do I want to limit myself to “Been there…done that” attractions?
Despite visiting Venice twice a year for many, many years now, we too had managed not to step foot in this Scuola. Guide books rate it as something of a poor relation, to Tintoretto’s flamboyant magnificence, at the San Rocco Scuola. Also, it isn’t on what could be called, “the main tourist highway”. There are however, many reasons why you should visit and if you are lucky, (as we were), you could be the only people in the building, (excluding ticket staff).
Once inside we were mesmerised. Downstairs there is a sequence of monochrome paintings that, in a city with so much colour, really stand out. The “over-the-top” plasterwork on the ceiling of the twin-staircase that leads to the upper “salone”, is typical of period excess. The upstairs room has a simply magnificent ceiling, by the renowned Giambattista Tiepolo. I’ve never been a big fan up to seeing this work. The ceiling can be studied in detail, using the large hand-held mirrors provided, to allow enjoyment without getting a crick in the neck.
Not only is the work a technical tour de force but it has a wonderfully controversial image of The Virgin. During any visit to Italy, you can easily become tired with the sheer quantity of images depicting the Virgin. The Catholic church was paying for these works and – as they say – he who pays the piper, calls the tune. So most characterisations are rather one-dimensional - albeit beautiful ones. What makes this portrayal so different is the look of absolute contempt on her face, as she peers down from her lofty position. In fact the whole ceiling provided, (for me at least), the key to understanding why Tiepolo is held in such high regard. The rest of the upper floor contains artworks that are of varying levels of quality and interest.
Another thing that couldn’t avoid being noticed was the immaculate condition of the floor. Not only was its construction absolutely beautiful, but it shone like the day it was laid. Full marks go to the keepers of this Scuola, they are doing a fine job of keeping it in excellent condition for future generations.
There’s a triple bonus in visiting the Scuola Grande dei Carmini. When you have finished in the Scuola itself, a visit to the Carmini church next door, is well worth the effort. At the end of your visit, you may feel like a little refreshment and the wonderful Campo Santa Margherita just around the corner, where you can grab a seat at the many excellent bars and restaurants.
Top marks.
One of the criticisms levelled at Venice is the crowds. Find yourself around the Rialto, or St. Mark’s and you will understand why. Rialto Bridge, (tick!)…St Mark’s Square, (tick)…Doge’s Palace, (tick) – you get the drift. However, there are places within this beautiful, tourist-strangled city, that are capable of astonishing you and Scuola Grande dei Carmini is one of them. However, before visiting you should ask yourself a question, “Am I really interested in the art? Or do I want to limit myself to “Been there…done that” attractions?
Despite visiting Venice twice a year for many, many years now, we too had managed not to step foot in this Scuola. Guide books rate it as something of a poor relation, to Tintoretto’s flamboyant magnificence, at the San Rocco Scuola. Also, it isn’t on what could be called, “the main tourist highway”. There are however, many reasons why you should visit and if you are lucky, (as we were), you could be the only people in the building, (excluding ticket staff).
Once inside we were mesmerised. Downstairs there is a sequence of monochrome paintings that, in a city with so much colour, really stand out. The “over-the-top” plasterwork on the ceiling of the twin-staircase that leads to the upper “salone”, is typical of period excess. The upstairs room has a simply magnificent ceiling, by the renowned Giambattista Tiepolo. I’ve never been a big fan up to seeing this work. The ceiling can be studied in detail, using the large hand-held mirrors provided, to allow enjoyment without getting a crick in the neck.
Not only is the work a technical tour de force but it has a wonderfully controversial image of The Virgin. During any visit to Italy, you can easily become tired with the sheer quantity of images depicting the Virgin. The Catholic church was paying for these works and – as they say – he who pays the piper, calls the tune. So most characterisations are rather one-dimensional - albeit beautiful ones. What makes this portrayal so different is the look of absolute contempt on her face, as she peers down from her lofty position. In fact the whole ceiling provided, (for me at least), the key to understanding why Tiepolo is held in such high regard. The rest of the upper floor contains artworks that are of varying levels of quality and interest.
Another thing that couldn’t avoid being noticed was the immaculate condition of the floor. Not only was its construction absolutely beautiful, but it shone like the day it was laid. Full marks go to the keepers of this Scuola, they are doing a fine job of keeping it in excellent condition for future generations.
There’s a triple bonus in visiting the Scuola Grande dei Carmini. When you have finished in the Scuola itself, a visit to the Carmini church next door, is well worth the effort. At the end of your visit, you may feel like a little refreshment and the wonderful Campo Santa Margherita just around the corner, where you can grab a seat at the many excellent bars and restaurants.
Top marks.
Written June 16, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
richards037
Norwich, UK48 contributions
Oct 2015 • Couples
Wonderful show tonight with excellent tenor and soprano, and we thought the ballet dancer was also very good. Small group of masked string players and harpist gave the right atmosphere to this intimate setting. Perhaps the musicians have changed since the last review in 2014; go and see it, you won't be disappointed, and the audience obviously enjoyed it with loud applause and cheers to the brilliant singers, musicians and dancer.
Written October 10, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
is this opera ballet evening on the ground floor? my husband is unable to do steep steps due to muscle wasting disease. Thanks.
Written August 9, 2017
Can you tell me what difference the seating price makes and how much you are able to see from the cheaper seat prices?
Thank you
Maggie (Moose )
Written July 8, 2015
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