Santa Maria del Rosario (St. Mary of the Rosary), commonly known as I Gesuati, is an 18th-century Dominican church in the Sestiere of Dorsoduro, on the Giudecca canal in Venice, northern Italy.

The religious order of the Jesuates, formally the Clerici apostolici Sancti Hieronymi was founded in Siena in the 14th century and had a presence in Venice by 1390.

Its members were known as I poveri Gesuati (the poor Jesuates) because they frequently called on the name of Jesus; they had no connection with the Jesuits (I Gesuiti), whose church is in the north of Venice.

Later, the order found it hard to recruit new members and a falling off in numbers combined with slackness in the performance of their duties led to its suppression by Pope Clement IX in 1668.

[3] The work started in 1725, while the Dominicans energetically sought to raise sufficient funds both from charitable contributions and from religious institutions and benefactors.

The main entrance door, surmounted by a curved pediment with an inscription above, is flanked by four niches with large statues representing the four cardinal virtues: Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance.

Although the outside walls make a plain rectangle, the interior of the nave (surrounded by Corinthian columns supporting an entablature with rounded corners) has the apparent shape of an ellipse.

The nave is well lit on both sides by large high windows, which show off the contrasting tones of the white walls and grey stone.

The Virgin, in a blue sky with clouds, angels and cherubs, is supporting the Christ child who holds out the rosary to St Dominic.

The saint stands at the top of a long flight of marble steps from which he is making the rosary available to the people, both rich and poor, including a doge and a pope.

[14] The second altar on the right bears a sculpture of angels carved in marble by Giovanni Maria Morlaiter (the first work he executed for the church; 1739) surrounding a small half-length painting of St Dominic (1743) by Giambattista Piazzetta.

Despite the rich Rococo treatment of the subject, Michael Levey writes that the "real triumph of the painting is in its memorably austere tonality.

"[16] In black, in the foreground is St. Louis Bertrand, a Spanish saint who went as a missionary to the Caribbean, where a native priest was said to have tried to poison him (symbolised by the serpent in the chalice which he is holding).

[17] On the left side of the nave, the altarpiece above the first altar is an oil painting by Sebastiano Ricci (1659–1734), celebrating three of the most famous Dominicans, Pope Pius V, Thomas Aquinas, and St Peter Martyr.

[20] Almost all the sculpture in the church is the work of Giovan Maria Morlaiter, a sculptor from over the Alps, whom Hugh Honour describes as "one of the ablest sculptors in eighteenth century Venice"[21] and Semenzato as "the most brilliant interpreter of the rococo in Venetian sculpture", adding that "His work shows great dynamism" and "an inexhaustible felicity of invention".

The altar beneath is in a rococo style with coloured marbles and carved shells, heads of angels and reliefs of roses, ears of corn and grapes.

[24] The choir, behind the main altar, has carved wooden stalls dating from between 1740 and 1744 and a ceiling painting by Tiepolo, of David playing the harp.