Santi Giovanni e Paolo and the Scuola di San Marco

Bartolomeo Colleoni, a mercenary commander who had fought for Venice, died in 1475 and left the Republic a large part of his fortune on one condition, that his statue be set up in front of San Marco. The city had no wish to put a soldier on its main square. It found another San Marco instead, the Scuola Grande di San Marco, a wealthy lay confraternity whose hall stood beside the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, and raised the bronze horseman there. That is the statue on its tall pedestal in this view, modelled by the Florentine sculptor Verrocchio and cast after his death. Canaletto painted the square around 1725, early in his career, with the curved marble front of the Scuola standing beside the church. That façade is still there. Since the early 19th century it has been the entrance to Venice's public hospital.