GAMBELLO, Antonio di Marco
(active 1458, d. 1481, Venezia)

San Zaccaria: Interior

1458-89
Photo
Campo San Zaccaria, Venice

The church was commissioned by Abbess Lucia Donà and the resident Benedictine nuns from Antonio di Marco Gambello, who was succeeded by Mauro Codussi. The unusually complex form of the church's apse and choir can be explained by its special place in Venetian history and ceremony. The doge and the city's senators annually paid homage to a symbolic replica of Christ's sepulchre located over the high altar. To accommodate this crowd, Gambello had designed the apse with an ambulatory and radiating chapels, a feature of pilgrimage churches such as the Santo in Padua. Codussi's hand is evident around the ambulatory in many details.