The current church of San Francesco della Vigna dates from 1534 and replaces an older church built in the XIIIth century. Jacopo Sansovino (1486-1570) designed it and also directed the work while the façade was later restored by Andrea Palladio (1508-80). The interior of the church has a series of five chapels with a circular window each, running along the lateral side, separated by columns. A door surmounted by a cornice has a low-relief decoration on top and a circular window above. There is also a monument with a broken pediment and carved decoration. The ceiling is slightly vaulted.

Antonio Visentini (Venice, 21 Nov 1688 – Venice, 26 June 1782) was an Italian painter, engraver, architect and theorist. He was first known as a painter and trained with the Venetian history painter Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (1675-1741). He became known as an engraver by the end of the 1720s when he was commissioned by Joseph Smith to produce engravings of Canaletto’s views of Venice. Visentini started working as an architect in 1731, and his first theoretical work, Libro di Architettura, which included Rococo-influenced drawings by Pier Antonio Morelli after Visentini’s ideas, was published in 1733.

His ideas on contemporary architecture derived from Antiquity and the work of Andrea Palladio (1508-80). Later however, Visentini developed neo-Palladian and anti-Baroque ideas. Visentini and his pupils executed numerous drawings of ancient and contemporary buildings intended to disseminate exemplary architecture. He participated to the foundation of the Venetian Academy in 1755, where he became a teacher of architectural perspective in 1772.