Chiesa di Santa Maria in Organo

This guide to the choir stalls of Santa Maria in Organo in Verona centers on Giovanni da Verona, the Olivetan friar who built forty-one wooden stalls in the 1490s and then spent a quarter century inlaying them with illusions of open cupboards, real-looking instruments and receding city streets. It follows Giorgio Vasari's praise for his skill and the carved faces along the armrests, said to be portraits of the monks who once prayed there. Look closely at the lectern for a small carved hare guides still argue about.