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| attributed to Paolo Salviati Santa Maria della Salute, Venice ca. 1880-90 albumen print DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, Dallas |
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| A. Faÿs Grand Canal, Venice, with Santa Maria della Salute 1844 salted paper print from waxed paper negative Cleveland Museum of Art |
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| Photoglob Zürich Santa Maria della Salute viewed from the Campanile di San Marco, Venice ca. 1890-1900 photochrom print Library of Congress, Washington DC |
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| P.C. Skovgaard View of the Grand Canal, Venice, with Santa Maria della Salute 1854 oil on canvas Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen |
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| Canaletto Grand Canal with Santa Maria della Salute, towards the Riva degli Schiavone ca. 1729-30 oil on canvas Royal Collection, Great Britain |
"S. Maria della Salute is one of the best known buildings in the world and a paper dedicated to it may therefore meet with a certain amount of reserve. What new observations, if any, can be made about such a structure? The simple answer is that we are going to move into virgin territory, barred from historical analysis by the warning: "Trespassing into the area of picturesque architecture undesirable!" I think it is due to an ingrained pattern of thought stemming from the late eighteenth century that we shrink from analyzing rationally what is generically labelled as "picturesque." We seem to assume that the imaginative, dazzling, colourful, swaggering, and richly orchestrated – the picturesque in the widest sense – is incompatible with analytical inquiry. But surely, every mental and creative process has its own laws which may be laid open by careful investigation, and this is precisely what I want to do."
– Rudolf Wittkower, S. Maria della Salute: Scenographic Architecture and the Venetian Baroque, published in Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (March, 1957)
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| Francesco Guardi Grand Canal with Santa Maria delle Salute ca. 1760 oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Canaletto Piazzetta San Marco looking towards Santa Maria della Salute ca. 1723-24 oil on canvas Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Photoglob Zürich Piazzetta San Marco, Venice, with Santa Maria della Salute in the Background ca. 1890-1900 photochrom print Library of Congress, Washington DC |
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| Michele Marieschi Santa Maria della Salute, Venice 1740-41 oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Graham Sutherland Santa Maria della Salute 1957 oil on canvas Southampton City Art Gallery |
"When deciding on a central design, [the architect, Baldassare] Longhena was, of course, guided by a variety of considerations. He knew, for instance, that a centralized church looks larger than it is. . . . But, in addition, the central scheme meant to him something quite different. It was for him the symbol of a sublime mystery. I give you his own words: "The mystery contained in the dedication of this church to the Blessed Virgin," he writes, "made me think, with what little talent God has bestowed on me, of building the church in forma rotonda, i.e. in the shape of a crown." I think we may presume that the crown here is not simply a generic reference to the Queen of Heaven of the Venetian litany which was recited during the processions at the times of plagues, but that Longhena thought more specifically of the crown of stars of which the twelfth chapter of Revelation speaks: "a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." . . . Moreover, the Apostles, who were always regarded as the Virgin's companions and since the time of St. Augustine have been symbolized in the twelve stars of her crown, appear as large figures under the dome, below the area where the octagon is transformed into the round. The mystery – it may be concluded – finds its human-made echo in the perfect symmetry of the 'crown-shaped' building as well as in the contrast between the octagon – the realm of the Apostles – and the sphere inside, and that between the bizarre scroll-brackets – the realm of the Patriarchs – and the calm silhouette of the dome outside, the old symbol of the dome of Heaven."
– Rudolf Wittkower, S. Maria della Salute: Scenographic Architecture and the Venetian Baroque, published in Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (March, 1957)
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| John Singer Sargent Santa Maria della Salute, Venice ca. 1904-1908 oil on canvas Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Paul Hermann Santa Maria della Salute, Venice 1945 watercolor private collection |
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| Walter Sickert Santa Maria della Salute, Venice ca. 1901 oil on canvas Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Walter Sickert Venice, la Salute ca. 1901 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
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| Walter Sickert Variation on Peggy (with Grand Canal and Santa Maria della Salute in background) 1934-35 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |