Chiesa di San Pantalon Historical Timeline

Origins

Tradition places the founding of a church on this site as early as the 9th century, though the earliest documented mention comes from a 1161 privilege issued by Pope Alexander III. The building was rebuilt in 1222 and first formally consecrated in 1305.

Turning points

The church took its present form between 1668 and 1686, rebuilt in the Baroque style by the architect Francesco Comin of Treviso. The facade, however, was left in exposed brick, its planned marble facing never completed -- a common fate for ambitious Venetian church projects that ran out of funding before the final decorative phase.

Influential people

Between 1680 and 1704, the painter Gian Antonio Fumiani spent 24 years covering the ceiling with a single enormous composition, the Martyrdom and Glory of Saint Pantaleon, painted across 40 canvases stitched together rather than as a fresco directly on the plaster. At more than 440 square meters, it's frequently called the largest oil painting on canvas in the world, though by some rankings it is the second-largest ceiling painting of its kind, after one in Maddaloni, Italy.

Cultural evolution

Local legend holds that Fumiani fell to his death from the scaffolding while completing the work, dying alongside his own masterpiece -- a dramatic story some historical accounts dispute, placing his actual death several years after the ceiling was finished.

Present-day significance

The BBC has listed San Pantalon's ceiling among the ten most beautiful in the world, and the church remains an active, free-to-enter parish in Dorsoduro, just off Campo Santa Margherita, for anyone willing to look up.