Basilica San Marco Interior

Everywhere there are marble columns, sculptures of sacred personages, and 4000 square meters of mosaics all unified according to a complex iconographical plan. The surfaces - all the surfaces - are covered by more than 4,000 square metres of mosaics, the result of six centuries of labour. The finest pieces, dating from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, are the work of Venetian crafts-people influenced by Byzantine art but developing their own independent style. The chapels and Baptistry were decorated in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; a century later, replacements of earlier mosaics were made using cartoons by such artists as Titian and Tintoretto. However, most of these later mosaics are fundamentally flawed by the

attempt to achieve the three-dimensional effects of Renaissance painting. Notice too the magnificent marble, porphyry and glass mosaics of the floor. These date from the twelfth century, though they have been much restored. In the last century the British architect GE Street managed to block a large-scale programme of replacement by convincing the authorities that the undulating surface of the floor was a deliberate attempt to imitate the waves of the sea. He was too late to save the left aisle, which is noticeably smoother. 

St. Mark's Basilica, Venice

St Mark's Basilica (Basilica di San Marco in Italian) is the most famous of the many churches of Venice and one of the best examples of Byzantine architecture in the world. Located just off the Grand Canal, the gleaming basilica dominates Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square) and adjoins the Doge's Palace. San Marco is a cathedral: it has been the seat of the Archbishop of Venice since 1807.

St. Mark's Basilica is designed on a Greek cross floorplan and modeled after Constantine's Church of the Holy Apostles (now destroyed) and the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Each arm of the Greek cross has a central nave with side aisle; a narthex in the west end provides the flat surface for the grand facade.

Inside, the first thing you notice are the gilded mosaics that cover the walls and ceilings — an area of around 8,000 square meters.

The 12th-century interior mosaics recount events of the New Testament, with the message of Christian salvation. The 13th-century mosaics depict scenes from the Old Testament, in particular the books of Genesis and Exodus, providing a thematic preparation for the interior.

Interwoven with this main plan are such motifs as the story of the Virgin, the martyrdoms of St. Peter and St. Clement, and events in the lives of St. John the Evangelist, St. John the Baptist and St. Isadore, the great pantheon of saints venerated by the Venetians. But most important of all are the cycles with the legend of St. Mark. The gold background is meant to impress, but also symbolizes the Divine and the light of God himself.

The intricately-patterned floor is a 12th-century mixture of mosaic and marble in geometric patterns and animal designs. A red medallion in the floor of the porch inside the main door marks the spot where, in 1177, Doge Sebastiano Ziani orchestrated the reconciliation between Barbarossa, the Holy Roman Emperor, and Pope Alexander III.

Over the high altar is a baldacchino on columns decorated with 11th-century reliefs. The altarpiece is the famous Pala d'Oro (Golden Pall), a panel of gold embedded with gems. It was commissioned from Byzantine goldsmiths in 976 and further embellished over the centuries. Napoleon stole some of the precious stones in 1797, but there are still plenty left, gleaming behind protective glass.

The choir stalls are embellished with inlaying by Fra Sebastiano Schiavone, and above them on both sides are three reliefs by Sansovino. On the two marble pulpits of the ambo are statuettes by the Massegne brothers (1394). Also in the choir are Sansovino's bronze statues of the Evangelists and Caliari's of the Four Doctors.

The Horses of Saint Mark were installed on the basilica in about 1254. They date to Classical Antiquity; by some accounts they once adorned the Arch of Trajan. The horses were long displayed at the Hippodrome of Constantinople, and in 1204 Doge Enrico Dandolo sent them back to Venice as part of the loot sacked from Constantinople (Istanbul) in the Fourth Crusade. They were taken by Napoleon in 1797, restored in 1815 and remained in place until the 1990s. They now reside in the basilica's museum in an upper gallery; replicas take their place on the facade.

The Tesoro (Treasury), to the far right of the main altar, has an impressive collection of the Crusaders' plunder from Constantinople as well as other icons and relics gathered by the church over the years.

InteriorCeiling mosaic

The interior is based on a Greek cross, with each arm divided in three naves and emphasized by a dome of its own. This is based on Justinian's Basilica of the Apostles in Constantinople. The marble floor (12th century, but underwent many restorations) is entirely tessellated in geometric patterns and animal designs. The techniques used were opus sectile and opus tessellatum. The lower register of walls and pillars is completely covered with polychrome marble slabs. The transition between the lower and the upper register is delimited all around the basilica by passageways which largely substituted the former galleries. The presbytery

Cupola at the transept crossing

The eastern arm has a raised presbytery with a crypt beneath. The presbytery is separated by an altar screen formed by eight red marble columns crowned with a high Crucifix and statues by Pier Paolo and Jacobello Dalle Masegne, masterpiece of Gothic sculpture (late 14th century). Behind the screen, marble banisters with Sansovino's bronze statues of the Evangelists and Paliari's of the Four Doctors mark the access to the high altar, which contains St Mark’s relics. Above the high altar is a canopy (“ciborium”) on columns decorated with remarkable relieves; the altarpiece is the famous Pala d'Oro (Golden Pall) [1], a masterpiece of Byzantine craftsmanship, originally designed for an antependium. The choir stalls are embellished with inlaying by Fra Sebastiano Schiavone, and above them on both sides are three relieves by Sansovino.

Behind the presbytery are the sacristy and a 15th century church consecrated to St Theodore (the first patron saint of Venice) where is displayed a painting (Child’s Adoration) by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.

Right transept

On the right of the screen is the platform from which the newly-elected doge appeared. In the left aisle are St Clement’s chapel and the Holy Host altar. Here is the pillar where St Mark’s relics were rediscovered in 1094, as depicted in the interesting mosaics of the right aisle (where the entrance to St Mark’s Treasure is).

Left transeptA detail from the rooftop

On the left of the screen is the platform for the Holy Scripture reading; on the right aisle are St Peter’s chapel and the Madonna Nicopeia, a venerated Byzantine icon. On the northern side are St Isidor’s chapel and the Mascoli chapel.

Mosaic

The upper order of the interior is completely covered with bright mosaics containing gold, bronze, and the greatest variety of stones. The decorated surface is on the whole about 8000 m2. In the most ancient works, both Byzantine and Gothic

influences can be recognized, as for example in the Saints from the 11th century between the windows of the apse. In the vault above is a mosaic with Christ Pantocrator. From the apse towards the entrance (from east to west) one can contemplate the history of Salvation in the domes: the Prophets, the Ascension and the Pentecost (Whitsun). The domes over the transept are called St John’s (stories of St John the Evangelist) and St Leonard’s (with other saints). In the vaults between the domes are represented episodes of Jesus’ life. As mentioned above, restorations and replacements were often necessary thereafter, and great painters such as Paolo Uccello, Andrea del Castagno, Paolo Veronese, Jacopo Tintoretto and his son Domenico took part drawing the cartoons. Tiziano and the Padovanino prepared the cartoons for the sacristy, built in the late 15th century. Other remarkable mosaics decorate the Baptistery, the Mascoli Chapel, St Isidor Chapel and the Zen Chapel.

Music

The spacious interior of the building with its multiple choir lofts was the inspiration for the development of a Venetian polychoral style among the composers appointed maestro di cappella at St Mark's. The style was first developed by a foreigner Adrian Willaert and was continued by Italian organists and composers: Andrea Gabrieli and his nephew Giovanni Gabrieli and Claudio Monteverdi.

Basilica Di San Marco Official website

Architecture

To build St. Mark's Church, Venice brought the spiritual and material heritage of Byzantium to the West.

The Greek cross plan stands on a structure which in the longitudinal nave has basilica architectural motifs: the vertical arm of the cross is greater than those of the transepts and the altar is in the apse area. Above the cross are five cupolas, according to the eastern model, as a symbol of God's presence.

Organisation of the space is rich in evocations that are not found in other Byzantine churches. The interior has a unitary sequence subdivided into individual spatial orchestrations to which gold background mosaics ensure continuity and the church's special way of being.

The Architectural Plan

St. Mark's church, begun in 1063, was built on the foundations and with the walls of an earlier church also dedicated to the saint. The model for this new church, much larger than the former one, was the Basilica of the Twelve Apostles in Constantinople.

The new structure was Greek cross with the longitudinal nave slightly longer than the transept limited by pre-

existing buildings (the ancient castle to the south and the Church of St. Theodore to the north). The five great cupolas were erected at the intersection and over the arms of the cross. The architectonic layout is highly articulated and repeats a single module clearly identifiable in the central cupola which rests, by means of the spandrels and great vaults, on four pillars. Both arms of the cross are divided into nave and two aisles.

The atrium with its cupolas was built a century after completion of the church. The baptistery was built onto the southern end of the church in the first half of the 14th century. Beneath the presbytery and the side chapels is the crypt (nave and two aisles with apse) housing the ancient chapel which for centuries has been the repository of St. Mark's body.

The Building Phases

The present day St. Mark's was begun in 1063 when the Doge Domenico Contarini commissioned an architect, probably Greek, to build a church on ancient foundations, using the ancient walls of previous buildings. The church was consecrated on 8th October 1094 when the body of St. Mark was definitively deposited in a marble tomb beneath the high altar.

Thereafter the church was continually modified, enlarged, covered with marbles and mosaics and decorated with columns and statues. Mosaic decoration began in 1071. In the course of the 12th century the essential nucleus of the iconographic plan for the interior was carried out. Other important cycles were created in subsequent centuries. In the early decades of the 13th century the church's image underwent substantial modifications: the facades were faced in polychrome marble and the cupolas were covered with higher lead cupolas so that they might be seen from a greater distance. The church was a kind of living organism in continuous mutation down through the ages of its history. Each period left important marks that contributed to creating a highly singular "summa" of precious artistic elements.

The Tessellated Floor

The marble floor is an original part of the church and covers its entire area like a great oriental carpet. It features different types of work technique. The main one is opus sectile in which pieces of marble are set out to form the most varied geometrical figures. There are also figures of animals (peacocks, eagles, doves, cocks, foxes) that refer to the symbolic meanings of mediaeval bestiaries. Both in the atrium and the interior the floor highlights the focal points of the architectonic structure.

Over the centuries this very precious work has been continually restored and redone, with a great many replacements due to the fragility of the material and to the wear it has always been subject to.

Stone and Marble

After the conquest of Constantinople in 1204, Venice had access to a great quantity of precious marbles from the sacred and civic buildings of the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. A great many marble articles were sent to St. Mark's and used to decorate the facades and interior.

The most varied marbles were used with a symbolic function depending on their characteristics and colour. The most precious stone is red porphyry, symbol of imperial and divine power. Among other things this marble was used for the Tetrarchs group (south façade) and the doge's tribune (interior).

Mosaics

When thinking about Saint Mark's Basilica, the first images that come to the minds of many people are those of the mosaics and their golden backgrounds.More than 8000 square metres of mosaic cover the walls, vaults and cupolas of the Basilica. Essentially Byzantine in its architecture, the Basilica finds in the mosaics its natural integrating element. The mosaic decorations were developed through some 8 centuries of the Basilica's history.

They represent stories from the Bible (Old and New Testaments), allegorical figures, events in the lives of Christ, the Virgin Mary, Saint Mark and other saints. The mosaics, with their warm colours, particularly gold, decorate the ample spaces of the Basilica, from 28 metres wide up to 21 metres high. As in Middle-Eastern churches, the interaction of the decoration with a dim, but ever changing light, according to the time of day, creates a range of evocative and intense effects.

In the Basilica's mosaics can be found the most significant evidence of Venice's history, the ambitions, faith, languages and trends characterizing the evolution of its art. From its Greek-Byzantine origins to the local artistic expressions and the skills to represent and interpret other outside influences, up to the modern, quite difficult art of preservation and restoration of these precious and complicated works.

The Iconographic Repertory

The mosaic decoration of the entire upper part of the architecture of St. Mark's - an area of around 8.000 square metres - is fruit of one unifying idea. Scholars agree that the grand iconographical plan of the interior was already completed in the course of the 12th century. The mosaics in the interior recount the events of the New Testament, with the great message of Christian salvation. The mosaics in the atrium, carried out afterwards, during the 13th century, are a meditation on the Old Testament, in particular the books of Genesis and Exodus, and are well located as precursor of and preparation for the interior. Interwoven with this main plan one identifies many others: the story of the Virgin, the martyrdoms of St. Peter and St. Clement, the events of St. John the Evangelist's life and those of John the Baptist and St. Isadore, the great pantheon of saints worshipped by the Venetians and, most important of all, the cycles with the legend of St. Mark. The gold background of the mosaics does not only give unity to the mosaics themselves but, in accordance with the oriental conception, has a precise symbolic value as the colour of the Divine, the image of that light which, for the theologians and Fathers of the mediaeval church, was God himself.

The mosaic complex of St. Mark's turns on certain iconographic themes. Though different interpretations have been made, we are dealing with a theological scheme that distributed the mosaics both outside and inside the whole building. The most accredited hypotheses point to a theologian active in St. Mark's, perhaps Jacobo Venetico, a Greek and scholar of Aristotle. However it must be admitted that there are other subsequent iconographies: one for the atrium, another for the external stories of St. Mark, a third for the baptistery, a fourth for the chapel of St. Isadore, a fifth for the Mascoli chapel and a sixth for the sacristy complex.

The mosaic decoration of St. Mark's covers an area of more than 8000 square metres, chiefly illustrating biblical themes from the Old Testament in the atrium and the New Testament inside the Church. The events recounted in the Pentateuch (the name given to the first five books of the Bible and attributed to

Moses) are set out in the atrium. The first event, depicted in the cupola, is the creation of the world (the hexaemeron) and the story of Adam and Eve. It is one of the masterpieces of world art in the portrayal of divine works in the 6 days of creation. There follow the stories of Cain and Abel, Noah, the Flood, the Tower of Babel, then Abraham and the stories of Joseph, occupying three small cupolas of the northern arm, and ending with the main events of Moses' life up to the crossing of the Red Sea. This cycle of mosaics was begun in the early decades of the 13th century, maybe in 1230, and completed in 1275. The series is inspired almost to the letter by the miniatures of the "Cotton Bible", which dates to perhaps the 5th century and of which there are some fragments in the British Museum. It is a biblical text of late-antique Egyptian (more precisely Alexandrian) origin.

The episodes from the New Testament inside the church centre around the events of the life of Christ as told in the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles and the Book of the Apocalypse. The mosaics dealing with the life of the Virgin, situated at the ends of the transept, of Byzantine influence and partly inspired by the apocryphal early Gospel of St. James, should be seen as having the function of linking the two Testaments. However, those of the early 15th century Mascoli chapel, which are of an exclusively Marian nature, may be considered as a cycle in themselves, referable to specific forms of worshipping the Virgin.

There is also a vast series of hagiographic mosaics from the lives of the saints, in particular regarding: - St. Mark the evangelist in the two chancels, the west wall of the south transept, the vault of the Zen chapel and on the facade; - the apostles, on the two vast left and right tribunes at the side of the Pentecost cupola; - St. Isadore in the mosaics of the chapel of the same name, a saint associated, after the crusades, with military and political luck; - St. Leonard, the popular saint of Provence, with a chapel dedicated to him where the main events of his life are depicted. His noble aspects however are highlighted: the chapel came under the area of the church that was strictly for the doge's use. - the stories of St. Peter and St. Clement, pope, on the lower side of the left and right tribune, at the side of the presbytery. St. Clement's presence perhaps refers to the importance of his cult which already in Alexandria was linked to the cult of St. Mark to whom seafaring people were devoted.

In the atrium as in the interior, but here more highly evidenced, the mosaics may also be read along linear vertical progressions from top to bottom. Usually the upper part deals with episodes from the New Testament and the middle part with isolated figures of prophets who have an interpretative role with regard to the former in accordance with the normal laws of mediaeval criticism which saw in the New Testament the verification of what had been announced on the Old Testament by the prophets and by their lives and words. The lower register of the fascia concerns the indigenous and patron saints of the local pantheon, in accordance with Byzantine custom, with the addition of foreign saints with whom there were links of piety or who were venerated in countries with which the Republic had trade relationships.

The mosaic heritage | The Old Testament

Atrium

The AtriumPassage from the square to the church is by way of the atrium, a place which, illuminated by the shining gold of its mosaics, pre-announces to the visitor the sacredness of the interior space. The atrium was decorated during the 13th century with the mosaics of the cupolas, vaults and lunettes, the mature expression of a wholly Venetian workshop of mosaicists, and they bear witness to stylistic evolution over the almost sixty years it took to complete the work (1215-1280 approximately). The iconographic programme of this mosaic cycle is western in its handling of the biblical theme of the Old Testament though the formal model is the Cotton Bible, an early Christian illuminated text from the Alexandria area. The richness of the atrium mosaics lies chiefly in the spiritual message assigned them. These mosaics "mark" the time of awaiting Jesus' advent, following the thread that identifies the phases of the history of salvation, after the fall of man and before its achievement in Christ whose life and mysteries are celebrated in the interior mosaics. A broad narration of the great events of the Old Testament, selected from the books of Genesis and Exodus, begins from the south-west corner on the right and is developed along the west and north sides

The first is the cupola of the Creation, set in three concentric circular strips around a central gold flake decoration. The story is divided into twenty-six scenes with biblical text in Latin above them. The first words are: "In the beginning God created heaven and earth. The Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters". There follow the days of the Creation. Each one features the figure of God the creator, identified in accordance with oriental iconography as the young Christ with crossed halo and processional cross on a rod. The Living Word of the Father and with Him since the beginning of time creator of the universe, as we read at the beginning of the Gospel of St. John. The six days of the Creation are recounted in the scenes of the two more internal strips: the first day on which God separated light and darkness; the second on which he separated the waters from the emerged land, gathering the upper waters in heaven and the lower between the lands; the third on which he made all species of plants to grow upon the earth; the fourth on which he put sun and moon in the sky to light day and night; the fifth on which he populated the sea with fish, the sky with birds and created the animals of the land, here shown in pairs: first lions, then tigers, leopards, elephants and pack animals and all the others; and the sixth on which God said, "Let us make man in our image and resemblance ". For each day an angel figure, from one to six, flanks the creator's work. Not common in depictions of the Creation and therefore of great interest is the scene of the Blessing of the Seventh Day. Seated on a throne surrounded by the six angels of the first six days as if by a royal court God places the hand of blessing on the seventh angel, the figure of Saturday, which God has reserved for himself. Above it are the biblical words, "And God blessed the seventh day ".

Below, the lower strip of the cupola is concluded by the Creation of Eve from Adam's Rib, the Temptation of the Serpent, the Disobedience of God's Command by the Progenitors and the Banishment from Earthly Paradise.

[ Cupola of the Creation ]

The cherubim, set by God as custodians of the earthly paradise, are represented on the spandrels below. The biblical story continues on the surrounding arches and lunettes near St. Clement's door with the Birth of Cain and Abel and the Crime of Cain, the beginning of an evil that was tol spread among men until their total destruction in the Flood. Only Noah, the righteous, his family and the animals he has chosen were to survive (the underside of the arch towards the central portal). The stories of Noah continue on the next arch underside beyond the portal which also illustrates the Building of the Tower of Babel and the Condemnation of Man's Pride.

[ Lunettes ]

In the other atrium cupolas the scenes are developed in a single strip at the base without interruptions. The second cupola and the lunettes near St. Peter's door tell the stories of Abraham, progenitor of descendants chosen by God for salvation. God speaking with Abraham is represented by a hand emerging from a segment of sky. The scene is repeated four times, punctuating the narrative sequence into four parts .

[ Abraham cupola ]

The next three cupolas, on the north side of the atrium, are occupied by the stories of Joseph, interpreter of dreams, upright and suffering. Having been sold into slavery by his brothers and unjustly condemned by the Egyptians, he found favour with Pharaoh and became saviour of the people of Egypt and of the very brothers who had betrayed him.

[ The first cupola of Joseph ]

[ The second cupola of Joseph ]

[ The third cupola of Joseph ]

The splendid conclusion of the atrium decoration is the Moses cupola, the masterpiece of the last generation of 13th century Venetian mosaicists. The scenes, rich in figures, proceed uninterrupted and no longer standing out individually against the gold but set in developed natural spaces and sumptuous architectures. They tell the story of Moses who, saved from the waters of the Nile, became saviour and guide of his people across the desert and the Red Sea to the promised land. Moses is a figure of Jesus, Saviour of all men, present in the arms of the Virgin Mother between the evangelists Mark and John in the semi-dome mosaic above the nearby door.

[ Moses cupola ]

The mosaic heritage | The New Testament

Entering the BasilicaAfter the preparation and the expectations created by the atrium mosaics, entering the church is a symbolic arrival in the 'promised land' of Abraham and the ancient patriarchs. Around the portal in niches of various sizes are the mosaic figures of the Virgin and Child between eight apostles (upper register) and the 4 evangelists (lower register). These are part of the oldest mosaics, dating perhaps to the late 11th century when the great portal was the external entrance to the church, before the atrium was built. They are held to be the work of the "Greek" mosaicists recorded in ancient Venetian chronicles, a term that referred generically to those originating from the Byzantine area. On crossing the portal and entering the sacred space of the basilica, the most striking aspect is certainly the golden mosaics covering the upper part of the architecture: this is due to the unity they give to the interior and to their oriental reference to the symbolic meaning of gold, the colour of the Divine.

The lunette above the main door immediately suggests a further and more precise interpretative key to this space. The three figures recall the classical plan of a Deesis, the prayer of intercession which, in eastern iconography, depicts Christ Pantocrator between the Virgin Mother and John the Baptist, humanity's two greatest intercessors. Here the Deesis is freely interpreted: the Baptist is replaced by St. Mark, patron of the church and city. The words from chapter 10 of the Gospel of St. John in the book held open by Jesus: "Ego sum ostium per me si quis introierit salvabitur et pasqua inveniet - I am the gate - whomsoever enters through me shall attain the pastures of salvation ", leads us to the recovery of forgotten meanings and values: the actual "gate" that leads to salvation is Christ himself, his Word communicated to us by means of his life .

[ Main portal ]

The overall mosaics of the cupolas, the vaults and the walls should be read precisely as an illuminated manuscript of the gospel. The central nucleus, which tells the story of Christian salvation, ranges from Messianic prophecies to the second coming - Christ the Judge at the end of the world - and its focal points are in the three domes of the nave. The orientation of the basilica, with the presbytery facing East and the main door to the West in accordance with

tradition, indicates the axis, the course of the sun along which the main nucleus of ancient mosaics should be followed. This itinerary allows us to read the story of salvation brought to man by Jesus, a sun that never sets.

Cupola of the Prophets

The Cupola of the ProphetsThe story of salvation begins in the cupola of the Prophets with announcement of the Messiah by the prophets who, around the Virgin, display their prophecies. On the apse bowl-vault the great Christ Pantocrator, lord of the universe, is a 1506 reworking of the original Byzantine type image by a renaissance master mosaicist. The Pantocrator, from the apse bowl-vault, sends his Son into the world. He appears at the centre of the cupola amid myriads of stars with the scroll of the laws in his hands. In the concave interior, the Virgin and prophets. At the bottom the Virgin, in sumptuous oriental garments and her hands outstretched while awaiting the Word to descend upon her from the centre of the cupola is aligned with the thirteen prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Obadiah, Habakkuk Hosea, Jonah, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Solomon and David. Each one bears a scroll alluding to the Incarnation and Resurrection of Christ and to the Last Judgement. In a central position and in an attitude of prayer Isaiah, pointing at the beardless youth in the middle of the cupola, pronounces the words: "Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son who shall be called Emanuel, God with us" and David, head of the royal dynasty of Israel, dressed in the sumptuous garments of the Byzantine emperor, proclaims the royal nature of the child to be born to her: "the fruit of your loins shall I place on my throne ". At the base of the cupola on the four spandrels beneath are the symbols of the four Evangelists: the lion (St. Mark), the ox (St. Luke), the angel (St. Matthew) and the eagle (St. John). The meaning of their presence is made clear by the accompanying inscription ("what was said of Christ through obscure allusions (by the prophets) was to be made clear by the Evangelists, and through them God made himself known to humanity ").

The mosaic heritage | The Stories of St. Mark

The stories of the St. Mark cycle are well represented in the church's mosaic decoration. Internally and externally the episodes regarding the Saint's life and his body are presented in three main cycles with different iconographic versions.

Inside the church the Saint's glory, the writing of the Gospel and evangelisation of the Veneto area are celebrated. He is portrayed in isolation in the bowl-vault above the central entrance. This mosaic was done in 1545, probably to a cartoon by Lorenzo Lotto or, according to recent attributions, by Titian. It replaced the previous Pantocrator in the first half of the 16th century. St. Mark, in liturgical vestments, is welcoming the faithful with open arms. Going into the church by the main entrance there are numerous references to St. Mark. On the internal wall above the main entrance the evangelist is in the lunette of the Deesis together with the Virgin in the function of intercessor with Christ.

The portrayal of the Saint at the top of the central apse of the presbytery has a more politico-religious accent. Here his figure functions as a trait d'union with St. Peter on the left and St. Ermagoras on the right. He extends a hand towards St. Peter, alluding to the gospel received from him, and proffers the evangelical text to St Ermagoras who is in an attitude of reverent respect. Isolated on the extreme left is St. Nicholas of Bari who also has a political significance. These early 12th century mosaics are the oldest in the church. The century of struggles for ecclesiastical supremacy between the two patriarchates of Aquileia and Grado had just finished with the victory of the latter, supported by the Republic. It appears that Grado, defined as the new Aquileia, took over the traditions and privileges of the latter's church, of which the chief aspects were its founding at St. Peter's behest by St. Mark and its first bishop being St. Ermagoras. St. Nicholas of Bari also comes into this dialogue, though in a different perspective. His body was stolen from Mira di Licia between 1099 and 1100. Heated discussions arose about putting his remains in St. Mark's next to the Evangelist's tomb. When it was decided to put them in the Lido Monastery his image, as a substitute, was

included in the mosaic. Moreover, in this historic crisis, it seems that the patriarch of Grado had to take up permanent residence near the precious relics at San Nicolò di Lido where the new saint became his symbol. In placing him in the mosaics next to St. Mark, indubitable symbol of the doge's power, the idea was to show everyone that patriarch and Doge coexisted peacefully in the doge's basilica.

[ Main portal and central apse ]

Chapels of St. Peter and St. Clement

Cantors

Political values are again evident in the great biographical cycle of St. Mark dating to the first half of the 12th century and situated in the side chapels of St. Peter on the left and St. Clement on the right of the presbytery. It is the same subject treated in the present day Zen chapel, the old "sea gate" on the right of the central atrium. The differences are perceptible first of all in the language: in the presbytery the mosaics have a notable stately accent that is quite far from the rather discursive and popularising mosaics of the Zen chapel. The themes too are very different. In the presbytery chapel there is an insistence on the apostolic origins of both Aquileia and Alexandria where St. Mark was said to have been sent by St. Peter to preach and baptise and where he died, whereas the mosaics of the Zen chapel highlight, over and above all this, the themes of the divine praedestinatio of St. Mark, patron saint of Venice. In both cases there is agreement with regard to the representation and death of the Saint in Alexandria and his removal to Venice. But in the presbytery chapel the accent is always on the courtly and State occasion: reception by the entire episcopate of the lagoon area with the patriarch of Grado at the centre and the six bishops (Caorle, Eraclea, Equilo, Malamocco, Olivolo, Torcello), elements not found in the story of the traslatio. The Doge himself (Giustiniano Particiaco) with his entourage recalls the mosaic of emperor Justinian in the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna .

The mosaic heritage | The Stories of the Virgin Mary

The theme of Mary is announced in the church's exterior decoration. On the south façade towards the pier, between the crowning arches, the mosaic of the Virgin Praying has been an object of great popular worship, with two lamps lit by night, ever since a merchant who survived shipwreck while sailing from Chioggia to Venice expressed his acknowledgement of the Virgin whom he had invoked. Since then she has been considered protector of the waters. The Virgin however is mainly linked to the founding of Venice, which is said to date to Annunciation Day, 25th March 421. The external portraits are preparatory to seeing the interior where the image of the Virgin is found in a very great number of reliefs, bas-reliefs and statues. There are also two chapels dedicated to her, the Mascoli, with a splendid marble group on the altar and the vault mosaics, and the Nikopeia, the one most venerated by Venetians.

West sides of the transepts

The Virgin's life is appropriately celebrated in two mosaic cycles in two symmetrical orders with a range that is unequalled in West or East: on the west sides of the right and left transept. The mosaics are more or less faithfully based on the apocryphal gospel of James and the Pseudo-Matthew. Here are depicted the Stories of Mary from the announcement of her birth to her death. The Stories of the Virgin's life face the mosaics with the Stories of Christ. Mary is the only human worthy of being depicted at the same level opposite Jesus. The two lives, of Jesus and his mother, have a meeting point arising from the promise made by God to Adam and which has its roots in Jesse. On the bottom wall of the north transept is the Tree of Jesse, at the top of which is the Virgin Mary holding the child, a mosaic dating to the mid 16th century.

[ South Transept ]

[ North Transept ]

Again, in the centre of the narthex above the main door, the Virgin and Child with the Apostles and Evangelists, invites all Christians to cross the threshold of the holy building. The iconographic image of the Virgin is the Nikopeia: Mary is depicted on foot, frontally with regard to Christ. Her right hand touches Christ's chest and the other is very close to his left leg but without touching it. Though the child is not supported he is portrayed as if he were seated. His right hand is raised in a gesture of blessing while his left hand holds a parchment resting on his left knee. This representation of the Virgin is pure Byzantine. The Nikopeia is the annunciation of Emmanuel to the Virgin, so the icon represents the incarnation. Passing the entrance one comes to the Deesis on the portal intrados with the figures of the two greatest protectors of Venice: the Virgin on one side and St. Mark on the other, interceding with the Lord in order that he receive the faithful

[ Main door ]

Setting the events of the Virgin's life in the transept up to her Dormitio in the narthex is not rare in a Byzantine context. The iconographic itinerary follows the scheme of the Byzantine liturgical year which began in September with the nativity of Mary (in the south transept) and ended in August with her death (in the narthex).

The mosaic heritage | The Saints

Among the various themes dealt with in the church mosaics, the hagiographic cycles dedicated to Saints are of special importance. Apart from St. Mark the evangelist the hagiographic mosaics regard other saints who may be grouped as follows:

- The Apostles and the Evangelists;- The Fathers of the Church (eastern and western); - Some major Saints (St. Peter, St. John the Evangelist, St. John the Baptist, St. Isadore, St. Clement); - Some Saints linked to Venice.

Apostles and EvangelistsThe Apostles, like the Evangelists, appear in several mosaic cycles. Around the portal, in niches of different sizes, there are mosaic figures of the Virgin and Child with eight Apostles in the upper register (St. Peter, St. James, St. Simon, St. Phillip, St. Paul, St. Andrew, St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew) and four Evangelists in the lower register (St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke and St. John). The Evangelist are repeated in the atrium, in the "pozzo" spandrels in a Renaissance execution.The Evangelists appear not only on the spandrels of the Prophets and Ascension cupolas, and Moses cupola in the atrium, but also on the arch underside between the Baptistery Antechamber and the Baptistery. The Apostles also appear in the Baptistery, in particular in the cupola above the baptismal font where there is a mosaic portraying Christ sending the Apostles to baptise the peoples. They are also in the Ascension and Pentecost cupolas and the north and south vault of the Ascension cupola along the nave where their martyrdoms are depicted.

[ Apostles and Evangelists ]

The Fathers of the Eastern and Western Church Two Eastern Church Fathers are portrayed in the vault pier abutments in St. Clement's Chapel: St. John Chrysostom and St. Gregory of Nazianzus, and again in the Baptistery above the baptismal font: St. Anastasius, St. John Chrysostom, St. Gregory of Nazianzus and St. Basil. The Western Church Fathers appear in the Baptistery, on the spandrels of the cupola above the altar: St. Ambrose, St. Gregory, St. Augustine and St. Jerome. They are again portrayed on the spandrels of the cupola of St. John.

[ Fathers of the eastern Church ]

[ Fathers of the western Church ]

The major SaintsThe BaptisteryThe figure of St. John The Baptist features in the Baptistery mosaics where all the episodes of the saint's life are portrayed: from the angel's message to St. Zechariah to the baptism of Christ, the saint's decapitation and lastly his burial.

[ St. John the Baptist ]

Cupola of St. John the EvangelistThe Stories from the Life of St. John the Evangelist are illustrated in the north cupola dedicated to him.

[ St. John the Evangelist ]

Chapels of St. Clement and St. PeterThe stories of St. Peter and St. Clement depicted on their chapels at the sides of the presbytery are ascribable to Greek craftsmen active in the upper Adriatic area during the first half of the12th century. The presence of stories of St. Clement, pope, on the lower side of the right tribune flanking the presbytery is perhaps due to the importance of the cult of this saint, formerly linked in Alexandria with that of St. Mark who was worshipped by seafarers. The chapel of St. Clement features a great figure of the saint in the bowl-vault. The decoration of St. Peter's chapel involves the apse bowl-vault, with an image of the saint, the north wall and the wall opening towards the chancel.

[ St. Clement ] [ St. Peter ]

Venice Patron SaintsCupola of St. LeonardSaints Leonard, Blaise, Clement and Nicholas might be defined as "political" for their role in connection with the Doge. Leonard of Limoges, holy king, indicated a manner of government based on holiness of behaviour with one's subjects. Nicholas, saint of the sea, bound Venice to the Adriatic and Aegean territories where he was widely worshipped. Clement, the third pope, indicated the Venetian rulers' attention to and respect for the papacy. Moreover the saint had preached in Alexandria, invited by the Apostle Peter. Blaise was one of the saints worshipped in the territories with which the Repubblica Serenissima had ongoing relations. The chapels of St. Peter, St. Mark and St. Clement recreated in Venice the historic structure of the Church of Alexandria. Venice was heir to the latter church and to that of Aquileia-Grado in an ideal marriage of East and West. The spandrels of the cupola of St. Leonard depict the Grado female saints: Euphemia, Dorothea, Thekla and Erasma.

[ Patron Saints ]

Mascoli Chapel

The Mascoli ChapelThe Chapel of the Madonna del Mascoli is beyond the end of the Transept where the entrance to the Chapel of St. Isadore is situated. Since 1618 it has belonged to a Confraternity of exclusively male worshippers established in St. Mark's in the 12th century and based first in the crypt, then at the altar of St. John, now of the Nicopeia Virgin.

There is an important mosaic cycle on the chapel vault, begun in the first half of the 15th century by the Venetian Michele Giambono. The decoration was inspired by the chapel's original dedication to the Virgin. In fact the canonical episodes of her life are illustrated in a sequence starting from the left side: the Birth, the Presentation at the Temple, the Annunciation, the Visitation and the Death (or Dormitio Virginis). The Annunciation in the large lunette at the back evinces a typically Gothic grace and gentleness with a corresponding loveliness in sign and colour. The Birth of the Virgin and the Presentation at the Temple are dominated by two Gothic architectures of crystalline beauty while the figures are characterised by soft modelling and delicate colours. The Visitation on the right wall of the chapel seems to belong to the late Gothic period, at least in the lower part, whereas above the visible "cut" the architectonic grouping is dominated by a humanistic setting and strikingly renaissance schemes. In the Dormitio only the Apostles on the right belong to the Gothic decoration while the other Apostles, the Virgin and the architecture are configured in the most typical language of Andrea del Castagno: this may be seen not only in the expressionism of the faces and the plastic modelling of the figures wrapped in swollen drapery and with cutting profiles, but also in the red Thessaly marble slabs covering the pillars of the immense and spacious arch of "classical" taste that acts as background to the figures of the Apostles who are rigorously detached from it.

[ Mascoli Chapel]

Zen Chapel

The Zen ChapelEntry to the Zen Chapel is from the Baptistery or the atrium where there is a very fine bronze arched gate of antique execution (5th - 6th century), brought to Venice from Constantinople. This south-west corner was once the vestibule of the sea gate. When Cardinal Giambattista Zen died in 1501 the Lords agreed that a funerary chapel be built in his honour.

The 13th century vault mosaics and the older ones above the portal document the original function of an important entrance. The vault has two orders with 12 scenes of Events in the Life of St. Mark. In the semi-dome above the portal is the Virgin with Child between Two Angels in veneration. This mosaic was completely redone in the 19th century on the old Byzantine traces. Farther down there are eight prophets, four beautiful marble sculptures and four mosaics.

[ Zen Chapel ]

Chapel of St. Isadore

The Chapel of St. IsadoreThe remains of this Greek saint were brought to Venice from Chios in 1125 at the behest of the doge Domenico Michiel whose devotion to him recalls his devotion to St. Mark. The small chapel dedicated to the saint is accessed from the north transept. These mosaics are an important cycle of Venetian art that has come down to us almost immune to restoration. In the simplicity of execution there is a notable narrative expression full of the character proper to the Venetian school of painting.

The vault mosaics narrate, in two orders one above the other, episodes from the life of St. Isadore on the Island of Chios and the transportation of the saint's body to Venice. On the lunette above the altar: Christ between St. Mark and St. Isadore; on that of the opposite wall the Virgin between St. John The Baptist and St. Nicholas. The two lunette mosaics are linked more to the Byzantine iconographic tradition, whereas the realistic narrations of the stories of St. Isadore were more open to western influences. These very precious mosaics date to the mid 14th century when the doge Andrea Dandolo wanted to create, together with the Baptistery, this chapel in the saint's honour.

[ Chapel of St. Isadore]

SacristyThe sacristy is reached by way of the chapel of St. Peter. It is independent of the rest of the original building and was built in 1486 by director of works Giorgio Spavento. From 1524 the most celebrated artists of the age worked on its embellishment.

The vault and wall lunette mosaics make up a homogeneous decorative group dating to the first half of the 16th century (1524-1530), notable for splendour and technical skill but by that time wholly dependent on painting. They are the work of Alberto Zio, Marco Luciano Rizzo and Francesco Zuccato, the foremost mosaic masters of the day. The mosaic decoration of the upper part of the walls fits in and gives unity to the renaissance purity of the architecture. Some attribute the design to Titian.

The Christological plan has its centre in the vaulted ceiling with its great cross and Christ with the Four Evangelists. All around are the Prophets who had announced the coming of Christ. In the lunettes of the two main walls the Twelve Apostles with St. Mark and St. Paul who had borne witness to him in the world, a work carried out to a cartoon by Titian. Above the door, the Eternal Father in Glory. On the west side the Virgin and Child are flanked by St. George and St. Theodore. Scholars acknowledge that the vault mosaics are of the highest quality.

The mosaic heritage | The Baptistery

Baptistery

The Baptistery, known as the giesa dei puti (children's church), occupies a space to the south of the basilica that was once part of the atrium and open towards the pier. It is now accessed from the church but originally the entrance from the small square better identified the three spaces into which the chapel is divided: the Baptistery Antechamber where the catechumens awaited the ritual of baptism, the Baptistery proper and the presbytery. There is much uncertainty about information prior to creation of the present day chapel in the first half of the 14th century at the behest of Andrea Dandolo, a highly cultivated humanist and a friend of Petrarch. He was first procurator of St. Mark's and later Doge (1343-1354). As for the transformation desired by Dandolo, some scholars have recently observed that the Doge's intention, over and above giving the church a new Baptistery with rich mosaic decoration, must have been to celebrate his own person and his family: the Doge is depicted as an offerer at the foot of the great crucifixion. The Baptistery mosaics are the last expression of the Venetian-Byzantine school, already evincing certain Gothic features.

The mosaic decoration centres on two themes: the figure of John The Baptist and the sacrament of baptism, a means of salvation brought to men by Christ. On the Baptistery Antechamber barrel vault ceiling are the figures of the Old Testament prophets. On the walls below there are episodes from Jesus' childhood interwoven with those from the life of John The Baptist. The picture opposite the door shows the Baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan, modelled on Byzantine iconographic canons. These mosaics have a clearly instructional aim for those who were here awaiting baptism. .

Inscriptions

The great many mosaic scenes in the atrium and interior are accompanied by inscriptions that enrich and broaden the spiritual meaning of the mosaics themselves. All the scenes feature a literary text in Latin, mostly drawn from the books of the Old and New Testaments. There are mediaeval prayers or invocations. The individual figures of the saints are also accompanied by their names. Over and above the Latin inscriptions there are a few in Greek. These are associated with the numerous images of Jesus and the Virgin, always accompanied by their monograms

The inscriptions accompanying the mosaics and the numerous Old and New Testament figures are a little known aspect of the church's decoration but they are extremely important because they comment on and complete each of the very many scenes, broadening their spiritual meaning. Almost all of the mosaic inscriptions are in Latin.There are a very few in Greek, among which the monograms of Christ and the Virgin which accompany all images of them almost as if to underline their superiority; the names next to some images of St. Peter, St. Paul, St. John the Evangelist, the archangels Michael and Gabriel and some of the Fathers of the Eastern Church, and the title of the Anastasis, the descent to the infernal regions, on the west vault of the Ascension cupola. There are few others.

All the Latin inscriptions come under one of the following classifications: 1) biblical passages, quoted textually or summarised in prose or verse, illustrating individual scenes or written on the prophets' scrolls; 2) mediaeval texts in verses that express prayers or invocations; appearing on arches, semi-domes and vaulted ceilings, they are very often addressed to St. Mark and composed specially for the church; 3) prose texts illustrating individual scenes; 4) names of prophets and saints next to each individual image.

[ Some inscriptions ]

By way of example let us analyse the central portal area that leads into the church from the atrium. Around this portal there are four niches containing figures of the four evangelists in canonical order: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, considered to be among the oldest mosaic creations of the late 11th century. On the upper part of the niches four hemistichs recite: Ecclesiae Christi vigiles / sunt quattuor isti / quorum dulce melos / sonat et movet udique coelos (these four are "sentinels" of the church of Christ, their sweet song resounds and everywhere moves the heavens). Above, set in a smaller register, the images of eight apostles, these too of very ancient date, surrounding the Virgin to whom the horizontal inscription refers, rendering her a symbolic figure of the Church: Sponsa Deo gigno natos ex virgine virgo / quos fragiles firmo fortes super aethera mitto (Bride of God, virgin always, I generate children whom I fortify in their weakness and send safely to heaven). On the front of the great semi-dome over the portal , the prayer is addressed directly to Mark, Holy Evangelist and patron saint of the city, depicted in a 16th century mosaic. In liturgical vestments he welcomes the faithful to his church: Alapis Marce delicta precantibus arce / ut surgant per te factore suo miserante (O Mark, banish sins from those who pray to you with clasped hands; through your intervention and God's mercy they may achieve salvation). Above the same portal, on the inside, a 13th century mosaic lunette shows the Virgin Mary and St. Mark in the act of interceding on man's behalf with Jesus who is portrayed as Christ Pantocrator, lord and judge of the universe. The words of the Gospel of St. John are clearly visible in the book and give us the right interpretative key to the figure of Jesus who says of himself: Ego sum ostium, si quis per me introierit salvabitur et pasqua inveniet (I am the gate; whomsoever enters through me shall find the pastures of salvation). So the opening through which one passes from outside to inside the church is a clear symbol of the true "gate" to the Kingdom of God, the person of Jesus himself. Observing, lastly, the numerous figures of prophets, apostles and saints one notes that each one's name is inscribed, in accordance with a practice typical of oriental icons painted on wood in which the name had to appear together with the figure. Once again the inscriptions are in Latin, demonstrating that Venice, though open to Byzantine influence, was firmly rooted in a western cultural environment.

Restoration

The mosaics of St. Mark's Basilica have undergone many restoration works during the centuries, since the end of the 13th century.The tremors, the structure deformations and the atmosphere aggressiveness are the main risk factors for the preservation of the mosaic heritage.

Nowadays the Procuratoria of St. Mark is in charge of the mosaics protection, maintenance and repairs and through its organs it is the keeper of this precious masterpiece.

Sculpture

Perhaps there is no other building as rich as St. Mark's in sculpture of such different types, epochs and origins. That of the 12th and 13th century French cathedrals is certainly richer but consists chiefly of works created in the place for which they were intended or works surviving from a pre-existing building.

This is true of St. Mark's only for part of the sculptures, albeit a significant part. The rest were collected elsewhere and then placed inside or outside the church, obliged to fit in with a group that constitutes a curious mixture of trophies, of ornamental elements already with their own meanings, subsequently integrated with new mosaics and sculptures in, from a programmatic point of view, a very fascinating decorative symbiosis. The result is a picturesque unitary complex, although naturally it is more of a unity perceptible through the senses and imagination than a logical and structural one.

Decoration of the Façade

The exterior of St. Mark's features, in the upper part, the profile of the raised cupolas, wooden structures covered with sheet lead which were superimposed in the 13th century on the original brick cupolas. The profile of the façade is enclosed by the Gothic crowning with aedicules, statues and floral decorations done between the 14th and 15th centuries by Nicolò and Pietro Lamberti and other Tuscan artists.

The lower body of the basilica, initially intended to remain in plain brick, was covered with marble along the sides where the north, west and south facades open out. This took place after the 1204 conquest of Constantinople when great quantities of precious oriental marbles, columns, capitals and reliefs were brought from the capital city of the eastern Roman empire, giving the Venetians the idea of decorating the three facades in a precious manner. The three façades of St. Mark's, North, West and South - to the East the apse was incorporated into the ducal palace - were conceived in a very different way from the viewpoint of their functions and therefore also of their decoration.

The west façade is divided into two orders by the terrace overlooking the famous bronze quadriga which was also brought from Constantinople. The main frontage of the church is punctuated by four great 12th century portals and the window of the Zen chapel. For each of these there is a corresponding lunette in the upper register. The most important is undoubtedly the main portal, a masterpiece of 13th century sculpture. Some sculpted Byzantine slabs are set into the 13th century marble covering: St. George and St. Demetrius, the Annunciation and the Labours of Hercules.

The south façade in ancient times included the "sea gate", a great portal that issued onto the western atrium directly from the pier. In the 16th century this opening was closed by a marble transenna for internal construction of the Zen chapel. Marble facings and columns with numerous fragments of 13th century decoration also embellish the architecture of the Treasury, between the church and the ducal palace. The porphyry sculpture of the Tetrarchs is set on the corner, and before the baptistery door there are two richly decorated pillars said to have come from Acre but actually brought from Constantinople.

The north façade, with the same scheme as the other two, overlooks the piazzetta dei leoncini. Though it appears less rich in decorative elements it has some fine 13th century slabs (Christ and the four evangelists) near the gate of flowers which in turn is topped by an elegant sculpture with a Nativity scene.

The North Façade | Further Information

The north façade, overlooking Piazzetta dei Leoncini, has an intimate and private character in contrast with the official prestigious role of the ones facing the square and the sea. As well as the recent tomb of Daniele Manin, which occupies the great niche at the head of the transept, and a three-light window opened during the 14th century in the arch to the right of the Gate of Flowers, the plastic decoration has been considerably enriched, clearly transforming the original plan. The foremost addition consists of the beautiful 13th century slabs with Christ and the Four Evangelists near the Gate of Flowers. The latter is topped by an elegant Nativity sculpture delimited by two arch undersides sculpted with angels and prophets and a sort of procession of half-length figures including Christ, Mary and male and female saints portrayed individually or in groups of three and flanked by angels and crosses. The Gothic crowning at the summit continues with floral decoration and figures of virtues and the church fathers. Later additions also include the two icons sculpted for the altars of St. John the Evangelist and St. Leonard, set in their present place only in the 17th century. The large and evident relief of St. Christopher on the transept buttress is part of the original plan.

Most of the sculptures are ornamental elements, ambo pluteuses and other reliefs with animals, pieces set together in a more or less decorative fashion. In most cases no attempt was even made to give them any specific meaning, whereas other icons take on a new function as parts of a plan. These include the Virgin Praying with Angels, the full figure portrayals of the Evangelists John and Mark on the architrave of the Gate of Flowers (which in a certain way are an external pendant to the figures of "custodian" saints on the Gate of the Virgin inside the atrium) and the two Archangels with sword and lance. All these sculpted figures form a group of icons for worship and also include the personification of Fortune on the arch to the east of the Gate of Flowers.

Over and above these icons and ornamental elements placed in a context other than the one for which they were created, the north façade also includes two iconographically coherent decorative complexes: the figurative plan of the Gate of Flowers, and a kind of procession of half-length figures as described above. All these figures were indubitably sculpted expressly for their present location

The West Façade | Further Information

In conformity with its official function in overlooking the square the content of the west façade is predominantly a frontispiece to the text that is amplified in the mosaics of the interior. A frontispiece which is not only a summary of the contents but which ratifies claims, invokes protection, insists on possession of St. Mark's relics, speaks of triumph, rule and riches, which admonishes observance of the ethical-religious virtues (personifications of the virtues) and the ideals and regulations of civil coexistence (representations of months and trades). The main central piece is the Last Judgement whose terrible severity is mitigated by the hint of redemption in the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ in the lunettes at the sides. The History of the Relics of St. Mark, the Mysteries of the Life of Christ and the Last Judgement are mosaics, the other parts of the plan being sculptural cycles.

The façade is divided into two orders by the terrace overlooking a copy of the quadriga of St. Mark, now housed in St. Mark's Museum. Each of the two orders has five great arches which in the lower part correspond to the four entrances to the atrium (from the left St. Alipius' Gate, St. Peter's Gate, The Main Portal, St. Clement's Gate) and the window of the Zen chapel. The 13th century marble facing includes several sculpted Byzantine slabs which should be seen as companion pieces on the two sides of the main portal which features two warrior saints. St. George and St. Demetrius, in the fight against evil. The next piece to the right with the Archangel Gabriel combines with the Virgin on the left to form the Annunciation, which alludes to the legendary founding of Venice on 25th March 421 (Annunciation Day). Lastly, the two portrayals of the Labours of Hercules at the ends of the façade are an example of how pagan themes, in the Middle Ages, were transformed into Christian terms: the mythological tale of Hercules, victorious over animal strength, became an allegory of Christian salvation. Hercules with the Boar of Erymanthus, the Angel Gabriel and St. Demetrius are Byzantine imports of the 5th, 12th and 11th centuries while the other reliefs are 13th century Venetian works. The second group of works on the west façade is also specifically Venetian and consists of reliefs of which half are ornamental and half figurative, framing the four lateral portals. Here the bas-relief, itself deriving from Byzantine forms, is associated with the background in gilded mosaic, but the content of this cornice does not seem to have great significance, especially now that the words on the Prophets' scrolls are only minimally legible. In particular the reliefs of Angels' heads on the right portals give the effect of purely ornamental fillers.

The sculptures of the three arch undersides that border the main portal, should be considered as a nucleus in themselves, a masterpiecec of 13th century Venetian artists trained in the Byzantine school and gradually

coming under western influence from the Po Valley and France.

This decoration preserves some remains of a former façade of the 11th or early 12th century, isolated pieces that seem almost lost or forgotten, while others have achieved a new iconographic value, such as the Dream of St. Mark which originally depicted the Dream of Joseph on the Eve of the Flight to Egypt. It was transferred to its present place at the end of the 19th century, thus taking on a new meaning and central importance as a representation of the dream in which St. Mark learnt from an angel that his relics would one day be housed in Venice. Over and above the elements inherited from the older façade there are plundered pieces integrated into the 13th century decorative plan which go so well with the works sculpted for the west façade that they almost seem no longer extraneous. The 'ornamental trophies' make up a small part of the sculptural decoration, one of the most significant pieces being the porphyry head of a Byzantine emperor, later held to be the head of Carmagnola.

The South Façade | Further Information

The South Façade | Further Information

The south façade, which overlooks the sea, is rich in triumphal accents:

- the pillars said to come from Acre but actually from Constantinople; - the porphyry group of the Tetrarchs; - the Pietra del Bando, a stone on which, according to ancient chronicles, the Serenissima ordered that the heads of traitors to the Republic be displayed for three days and nights; and the trophies on the south wall of the Treasury.

All this was aimed at dazzling, with the power and splendour of Venice, those who arrived by sea, both foreigners and Venetians returning from afar. But this façade underwent far more extensive transformation than the other two in the 14th century, when a part of the atrium was turned into a baptistery, and at the beginning of the 16th century when the south atrium with the sea gate was transformed into a sepulchral chapel for cardinal Giovanni Battista Zeno (Zen Chapel). The sea gate, of which there are no extant illustrations, permitted the Venetians direct access to the church from the sea by way of the south head of the atrium since the perimeter of the present day Ducal Palace was surrounded by lagoon waters by means of a wide canal. The remaining elements of the old portal are two lions and four prophets, later placed in the Zen Chapel, and two gryphons. The late 13th century portal arch is edged with foliage containing the heads (in relief) of ten prophets and two bishop saints. The summit of the arch is crowned by the figure of Christ Pantocrator. This curious mixing of prophets and saints is practically impossible to find elsewhere and may be considered specifically Venetian inasmuch as veneration of the prophets was, in Venice, on a par with veneration of the Church saints. Today however it is difficult to interpret the original message of the arch since only four names can be identified with certainty (Moses, Simeon, Habakkuk and Daniel).

The Treasury complex is a decorative unit in itself. There are numerous Byzantine reliefs on its south façade whose function is purely ornamental and without any iconographic meaning. The skirting of this façade is a later 14th century addition, with a zoophoric relief and the inscription 'veneziana' which is an absolute linguistic rarity.

The Main Portal | Further Information

The main portal of the church has a complex structure: it consists of three great arches arranged in diminishing order, each one decorated with bas-reliefs on the front and intrados. The most recent scholarship concludes that the group was designed at one and the same time and carried out in the relatively brief period of about ten years, in the 13th century. The formal and stylistic discrepancies are imputable to the fact that the portal was decorated by a number of craftsmen.

The relief on the innermost intrados shows two crouching figures identifiable as Satan and Lust, a usual couple in Romanesque iconography, from whom a vine shoot intertwined with pomegranate departs and surrounds simple depictions: animals, combat, fables (the fox and the grapes) and Samson Fighting the Lion. The archivolt of the first internal arch also has motifs of animals fighting, flanked by hunting scenes. In some cases it is impossible to determine even the actions of the figures (children, men, women, a centaur) and consequently their meaning. Many of the figures are simply crushing, breaking and pulling up the foliage that surrounds them. The Devil, Lust and the beasts allude to the evil that dominates the world. The archivolt shows examples of vice set in the selva oscura (dark forest) - which meant life to mediaeval man - through the allegory of hunting and through the depiction of ignoble actions.

The Quadriga of St. Mark's | Further Information

The bright bronze quadriga came to Venice as part of the rich war plunder gathered by the Venetians, under doge Enrico Dandolo, after the conquest of Constantinople at the end of the 4th Crusade in 1204, together with other works of inestimable value, many of which are still housed in the Treasury. The horses were probably set in the façade when Ranieri Zeno was doge (1253- 1268). The mosaic decorating the lunette on the portal of St. Alipius, datable to around 1265, already shows the horses on the façade in the position in which they were to remain over the centuries, celebrated by many Venetian artists beginning with the great canvas by Gentile Bellini, the solemn Procession in St. Mark's Square (1496). Petrarch was the first to wonder about their origin but it was only in the Renaissance that the horses' creator was sought and they were attributed to the great Greek sculptors Phidias, Praxiteles and lastly Lysippus.

[ Quadriga of St. Mark's ]

Closer reading of the sources and the various aspects of the group came about only in the 18th century, thanks chiefly to G. G. Winckelmann, the founder of modern archaeology. There was also the hypothesis that the work was not Greek but Roman and this attribution was to be debated right down to our own times. In December 1797, after five centuries, Napoleon had the four horses removed from the façade and transferred to Paris to crown the Arc du Carrousel. The quadriga was subjected to various additions. With the fall of Napoleon Antonio Canova was engaged to repossess stolen works and bring them back to Italy. On 13th December 1815 in the presence of Franz I of Austria, the new sovereign of Venice, the horses were returned to the façade of St. Mark's. But the precious quadriga in gilded bronze, the only one to have come down from antiquity, had undergone considerable damage so before resuming its place it was taken to the Arsenale for restoration. Other interventions were required in subsequent years and the quadriga was twice more lowered from the great arch of St. Mark's to safeguard it during the two world wars.

Around the sixties the horses underwent a series of technical surveys by the Central Restoration Institute during which their precarious condition was noted, but precious data was gathered regarding their history and morphology. However it was deemed indispensable for future preservation to keep them in the and to put a copy on the arch outside.

The Quadriga of St. Mark's | Further Information | [ 1 | 2 ]

Scientific analyses led to across the board interpretation of the work. The sculptures were cast in several parts (head, trunk, hooves, tail) with the method known as indirect, which is to say by means of concave plugs, obtained from a form, in which wax was spread which during casting was replaced by the metal, a particularly difficult operation in this case, as seen from the hundreds of plugs of the most varied shapes that fill the defects in the casting. In fact the alloy is almost totally copper which, for casting, requires a far higher temperature than ordinary bronze: a very rare if not actually unique case for statuary of this size, but carried out with view to application of the gilding. Originally it was probably double gilding, with leaf and mercury, the latter a technique especially widespread in the middle period of the Roman empire. The excessive brightness of the gold was dulled by the artist with dense hatching in the zones most exposed to the light. Engraved on the hooves and halters are Roman numerals whose true function has never been clarified. The autopsy during the last restoration revealed no elements that might lead to absolute dating. Perplexity continues and - unique in the history of antique art - scholars' opinions still range between the 5th century BC and the 4th century AD. However certain features such as the use of mercury in casting, the shape of the eyes, the manes and the ears, and the complex form of the plugs used for repairs carried out before gilding would suggest the Roman period, the epoch of Septimus Severus, in the context of a school of Greco-Oriental artists who were still mindful of and repositories of the great Hellenic tradition.

The Gothic Crowning | Further Information

The profile of the church façades is enclosed above by an actual crown in white marble that gives the building an airy, fragile late-Gothic finish. The Byzantine type vaults with extrados are set in inflected arches (with busts of saints in the resulting spandrels) which externally have large jagged leaves moving in the wind alternated with busts of Prophets. At the top of each of these arches there is the statue of a saint worshipped in Venice or the personification of a Virtue. Corresponding to the centre of the main façade there is a wider arch topped by a more thrusting external profile. In the intermediate space, in a starry sky, there is a lion of St. Mark, a 19th century cast iron reproduction of the original destroyed in 1797. This more significant cusp is topped by a statue of the evangelist to whom the church is consecrated and there are six golden-winged adoring angels along the profile.

Between the arches there are high Gothic aedicules (the one in the north-west corner that also contains a bell is dated 1384 and marks the beginning of works on this part of the church). Each aedicule contains a statue: at the two ends of the west façade, the Annunciating Angel and the Virgin of the Annunciation, repeat the layout of the relief slabs on the lower part of the façade with an allusion to the Venetian New Year and the legendry origins of the city on 25th March 421. In the four aedicules of the west façade are the four evangelists; in the northern flank the Fathers of the Church and in the southern two saints (Anthony the Abbot and Paul the Hermit). Beneath the four central aedicules of the west and north sides there are robust human figures supporting wineskins, enclosed within the narrow space of the niches cut in the spandrels: these are the so-called spouts or 'gargoyles' that once actually conveyed rainwater from the roofs behind, evoking the concept of the Rivers of Paradise (another four rivers, now reduced to two, were in the lower 13th century part of the west façade). The high reliefs of the arch around the central window, behind the horses, also belong to the same phase: the intrados contains four Patriarchs of the Old Testament and the four Evangelists within baldachins while on the front there are events from the Old Testament in hexagonal panels alternated with foliage.

The Iconostases | Further Information

From the centre of the church, beneath the Ascension cupola, one can clearly see certain architectonic modifications and sculptural additions. Outstanding among these is the Gothic iconostasis with its 14 beautiful statues at the sides of the Crucifix, the work of the Venetian brothers Pierpaolo and Jacobello dalle Masegne, completed by the smaller iconostases in the chapels of St. Peter and St. Clement with figures of female saints. In churches of Byzantine tradition the iconostasis is a rood-screen, usually in wood or marble, separating nave and presbytery, and takes its name from the fact that it bears icons. Since the icons are wholly lacking in the Venetian work it would be more correct to call it a 'column transenna'.

The central part separating the presbytery from the church bears an inscription with the date 1394 and the signatures of Pierpaolo and Jacobello dalle Masegne who, between 1380 and 1410, had considerable influence both in Venice and on the mainland. The St. Mark's iconostasis is the only work, intact in its original state, with the unquestioned signature of the Dalle Masegne brothers.

The presbytery iconostasis replaced a 13th century one of which the lower arches still remain in their original place. The latter, according to the reconstruction, had no structural similarity with the present one. The earlier iconostasis, dismantled, was decorated with reliefs and it is probable that sculptural decoration was chosen in memory of it.

The present day iconostasis consists of 12 Apostles with the Virgin and St. Mark. Each figure has an inscription on the base with the names in Latin (St. Mathias, St. Phillip, St. Thaddeus, St. Andrew, St. James the Elder, St. Peter, the Virgin, Christ Crucified, St. John, St. Mark, St. Matthew, St. Bartholomew, St. James, St. Simon, St. Thomas). The individual figures cannot be identified without reservations since the bases have been changed in some cases. The sculptures are in white marble but have a dark brown surface which probably derives from smoke from candles placed between the figures. The edges of their garments have considerable remains of the original polychrome which repeats the rhombus motif found in the architectonic part of the iconostases.

The iconography as a whole recalls that of the iconostasis of the old St. Peter's church in Rome featuring, next to the apostles, several female saints. This reference is certainly not a random one and bears witness to the Venetians' intention to compete with the church of the Apostle of Rome.

[ Iconostases ]

The three parts of the St. Mark's iconostasis appear equal in their structure whereas the style is profoundly different. Here we offer the possibility of identifying the style of the two brothers. One presumes that Jacobello did the figures in the central part between 1393 and 1394 with his assistants while Pierpaolo later, with his pupils, did the sculptures at the sides. The ten figures at the sides of the iconostasis have also been attributed to a less talented helper, and certain stylistic affinities with the works of Nino Pisano have been pointed out, but no one has ever seriously questioned attribution to Pierpaolo. Attribution of the fourteen figures of the central iconostasis to Jacobello does not of course exclude the participation of helpers who had to prepare the marble blocks, rough-hewing them in accordance with Jacobello's drawings. This may have led to unpleasant surprises, even to emergency measures. Thus for example in the St. John the Evangelist the too narrow right shoulder might have been the result of a mistake.

If however the work is considered overall, defects of this nature seem of secondary importance. Moreover there is clear intention to make all the figures appear to be the work of the same artist . The Apostles and the Virgin do not look either ahead or at the cross. Their heads are slightly turned aside and each person seems to be closed within himself. This notwithstanding, their turning and bowing gives rise to the

formation of couples, a fine invention that results in a rhythmical grouping. The relative isolation of the individual figures is expressed not only in their faces but also in their attitudes. Jacobello's figures are set more firmly on the ground and there are rarely harmonies of borders, folds, outline and attitude. Sometimes Jacobello drapes the garments so close to the body as to create "islands" delimited by folded ridges, often forming an oval. Only in the second quarter of the 15th century was something similar found in Venice. But in spite of the close fitting garments the body in Jacobello's sculptures is not seen as an organic whole and is concealed in the drapery so that only rarely does one see articulations. In the overall figure the faces whose expression has been drawn by Jacobello carry greater weight while those of Pierpaolo are usually more serene. These faces close up are more reminiscent of mid 14th century Venetian painting and mosaics than of other sculptural works.

The Small 15th Century Altars | Further Information

The doge Cristoforo Moro (1462-1471) commissioned the altar of the chapel of St. Clement and the altars of St. Paul and St. James in the north and south transepts. Each is a pendant to the other in form, size and location. An inscription on each recalls the commissioning doge. The entire work must have been completed before 28th June 1469, the day when payment was made to young Antonio Rizzo of Verona for execution of the altars. Rizzo therefore made his artistic debut with the most prestigious sculpture commission then available in Venice. The presence of Franciscan saint and preacher St. Bernardino of Siena with St. Mark at the sides of the Virgin on the altar of St. Clement bears witness to the doge's special veneration of the recently canonised saint. The present day layout of the relief of Virgin and Child with the two saints is the result of modification around 1811 with the insertion of a relief depicting the Doge Andrea Gritti worshipping St. Nicolò, sculpted in 1523 by an unknown artist for the chapel of St. Nicolò in the ducal palace.

On the altars of Saints James and Paul the statues of the saints are surrounded by renaissance tabernacles. Rizzo was one of the first to use, in his altars, pilaster strips, a trabeation and a lunette, the latter set to frame the altar-piece.

The greater variety of areas and profiles on the altar of St. Paul would suggest that it is of a later date than that of St. James. In the former work the distribution of body weight shows little uniformity and is far more evident due to a pronounced unbalancing of the pelvic axis and a more decisive projection of the raised leg. The contrary rotation of head and shoulders in St. Paul produces a slight torsion whereas the figure of St. James is still conditioned by the closed geometries of the cube of stone used for the sculpture. The drapery of both statues - as well as that of the Virgin and of St. Mark on the altar of St. Clement - betrays the influence of Paduan art around 1450. The conversion of St. Paul, on the contrary, is indebted to Florentine art, the so-called "flattened" relief technique; the simulation of atmospheric perspective and the dissolving of the land by means of a carpet of clouds. These expedients, today admirable only in old images, suggest that Rizzo had seen Donatello's Florentine reliefs.

Sansovino's Sculptures | Further information

On 7th April 1529 the Procurators of St. Mark's nominated Jacopo Sansovino as architect and director of works to superintend the church and all buildings within and without Venice. As well as handling various architectural and consolidation interventions Sansovino, as director of works, also had the duty of embellishing the church, which he did by transforming the choir. In their original positions in the presbytery today there are only the small tribunes for choristers, the sacristy door and the small door to the Holy Sacrament, a result of radical modifications carried out when the ducal chapel became patriarchal basilica in 1807.

The presbytery of St. Mark's designed by Sansovino is divided into two areas: the major chancel, where the Doge, the Lords and their entourage attended church services, and the minor chancel two steps higher than the major, the actual presbytery and choir for the clergy. Under his direction new benches with inlaid frontals were created, set against the walls of the major chancel. Here, from the mid 16th century, during religious services, the precious Medici tapestries with the Stories of St. Mark were hung. Sansovino personally created the bronze reliefs for the two small chorister tribunes to right and left of the ducal area. Abolishing perspective depth he set each story in a dense atmosphere of classical-type citations, laying out the figures (modelled with powerful plasticism) in a tight, dramatic and spectacular narration that was to influence the subsequent works of Tintoretto. With Sansovino's reliefs there was a return to exalting St. Mark's miraculous powers. The reliefs of the right "pulpit" (1537) illustrate episodes from the Evangelist's life: St. Mark Baptising the Unbelievers, Martyrdom of the Saint in Alexandria, St. Mark raising a dead man, exorcising a possessed man, healing the lame; the fourth relief shows St. Mark and his Lion. Dating to some years later (1541-1546) the reliefs for the left "pulpit" depict The Miracle of the Slave in Provence, The Miracle of the Rain in Apulia, The Miracle of the Soldier in Lombardy and St. Mark Reading.

But all scholars agree that Sansovino's masterpiece is the bronze door of the sacristy for which he began the wax model in 1546. The bronze door, which follows the curved progression of the apse wall, is framed with marble. The two main panels show the scenes of the Burial (lower panel) and the Resurrection (upper panel), framed horizontally by three Reclining Prophets and vertically by the four Evangelists. At the corners of the two main panels, six heads emerge from smaller panels. Three of the portraits have been identified, thanks to Francesco Sansovino: his father Jacopo, Titian and Pietro Aretino. There have been various conjectures about the other three heads: Palladio, Tintoretto, Veronese and the two Palmas.

The tabernacle door with Christ in Glory completes the apse altar, behind the High Altar. The fact that the door is the work of his assistants does not mean that the Maestro was not involved in it: he probably supervised this copy for St. Mark's.

[ Sansovino's sculptures ]

Sansovino's sculptures for the presbytery are all in bronze. They are individual works but cannot be considered as independent and isolated since there is an interrelation, a result of his masterful orchestration, that establishes a sense of unity in the whole. Documents in our possession give us a fairly precise idea of the stages in the creation of Sansovino's bronzes. The master created a model in terracotta, probably presented to the Procurators for approval before casting in bronze, whereas the rest of the procedure was entrusted to his workshop under the supervision of the workshop head. The involvement of many assistants in the casting process has been interpreted by some scholars as a sign of Sansovino's remoteness from the project. Without a doubt his assistants prepared the wax models which were then passed on to specialised casters, but this itself was a consequence of the bronze casting process, long, complex and very delicate. A century earlier in Padua Donatello himself employed professional casters. As for the wax model for casting, its preparation could easily be left to assistants since the wax had to be finely modelled in all its details to achieve the form desired by the sculptor. Moreover, the formal perfection of a bronze sculpture is the result of a long and patient reworking to correct the imperfections of casting. One may intuit that for Sansovino, a much sought after sculptor and architect with a heavy workload, the use of bronze was an optimal solution since he could create models and leave the long casting process to others. In the St. Mark's bronzes Sansovino's originality and creativity were given full rein, leading him to experiment with mannerism, also stimulated by contact with Tuscans Giuseppe Salviati, who arrived in Venice in 1539, and Giorgio Vasari who lived there for a few months between 1541 and 1542.

In his operation of updating the ceremonial space of the presbytery with a more modern language Sansovino celebrated the myth of Venice, decorating the church in a propagandistic key where the themes of religion and

politics are interwoven. Since earliest times the cult of St. Mark had possessed not only a religious but also and above all a political meaning.

Columns and capitals | Further Information

The capitals and column shafts in the church are partly material plundered from Constantinople and partly mediaeval imitations or creations produced for St. Mark's. Undoubtedly the pillaged material had to be touched up or adapted to its location whereas most of the bases of the columns in St. Mark's are originals created for the building. A column's shaft and capital may have been created in different periods and places and come from different contexts. So in uniting them in the formation of a new column, something totally new was created.

[ Columns and capitals ]

The essential features of the layout of the columns in St. Mark's, mainly of the 11th and 12th centuries, are a rigorous symmetry and correspondence where the number of related pieces permit. These features are dominant in the west arm where the marble shafts are symmetrically distributed according to veining, in vertical or horizontal progression. The distribution of capitals in the presbytery zone is also regular and symmetrical, whereas with the columns it was necessary, perhaps because of the considerable dimensions required, to set one before the other a shaft in Proconnesio of different veining and a shaft of Docimeum (light pavonazzetto) opposite one in Proconnesio marble. In the choir, in front of the pillars, there are two different pairs of capitals set in a frontal position in such a way as to create symmetry to left and right of the axis, giving a special accent to the apse where the capitals with richer decorations are situated, the only 11th century ones that the church possesses. These capitals, together with those of the side apses, immediately appear the most significant. And among these the four set on Thessaly green columns are outstanding for their typology, the same as that of the main capitals in St. Sophia's in Constantinople. The capitals of the south side apse are also 11th century works from Constantinople whereas those of the main apse and the north side apse are mediaeval copies of the same type. So only two capitals had been plundered and copies of the other six had to be made in order to have the same columns in all three apses. It may be surmised that the two pillaged capitals were acquired in Constantinople with the intention of placing them in a privileged position in the church in Venice. Perhaps what was wanted in Venice was capitals similar to those of the decorations of Constantinople's main church. Probably in that period it was not possible to find more than those two in Constantinople so it was necessary to resort to copies. The scroll capital of the apse and the Ionic ones on the walls of the west arm find their prototypes in the Justinian church of St. Sophia. Regularity, alternation of the elements and symmetry also prevail in the north and west narthexes. In the northern one the aim was to place, one next to the other against the internal walls, only Proconnesio shafts with the same vertical veining. As for the Ionic capitals, between each of the two pairs of mediaeval capitals there is one dating to the 6th century. In the west narthex, being the main narthex of the church, there are actually several pairs of 6th century Ionic capitals set in a dense sequence next to other pairs dating to the 12th century, again on similar shafts of Proconnesio marble. In the west narthex the side doors with columns in pavonazzetto are flanked by particularly precious capitals with lion and eagle heads on facing globes, standing on late-antique shafts of white-black breccia, a marble from Aquitaine but, as documented, used in Constantinople in an imperial context as an especially precious stone. In the embrasures of the side portals there are also columns with rippled capitals. These free columns that support neither vaults nor anything else were erected subsequently, to be precise only during the façade decoration phase in the 12th century. Their parts, which may have come from the area of the imperial palace in Constantinople, have the purpose of intensifying the row of columns on the west narthex wall, analogously to the dense column sequence of the west façade and, at the same time, obtaining development with regard to the exterior. Without these columns the surface of the walls between the pairs of columns would have seemed bare in comparison with the façade. The contrast with the west wall of the narthex, completely without columns, is thus increasingly highlighted. This contrast evidently originated in the aim to give importance to the interior wall of the church that is first seen by the visitor, accentuated with the addition of other 13th century columns. Entering the narthex a scene of great monumentality opens up, based on the determining effect of the white-black breccia columns with their precious capitals, free of any load-bearing function.

The Treasure and the Pala d'Oro

The Treasure of St. Mark's is the richest documentation of gold and silver work, precious stones, ornamental glass and paintings, the most refined items produced for the churches and buildings of Constantinople and the most precious pieces created for the glory of St. Mark's by Venetian craftsmen.

All agree that the most precious piece is the Pala d'Oro, the retable of the high altar of the church which glorifies the Evangelist and contains his relics.

The Pala d'Oro | Further information

The high altar retable of St. Mark's - the Pala d'Oro - is universally considered to be the most precious and refined expression of Byzantine genius and the cult of light, understood as the raising of man towards God. It glorifies the evangelist and contains his relics.

Pala derives from the Latin palla, cloth, sometimes decorated with images of saints and used to cover the altar or embellish its background during the church service. These cloths were then replaced by gold or silver - frequently found at least in Venetian lagoon area churches - hence the name Pala d'Oro (gold) or d'argento (silver). The most famous of all is the one in St. Mark's, ordered from Constantinople by the doge Ordelaffo Falier in 1102 and completed in 1105.It consists of 2 parts: the Pala d'Oro proper and the wooden container behind it. Since its origins it has been opened only during liturgical celebrations in the Basilica, a tradition that continues today. The rest of the time it is covered by another altar-piece known as "ferial", a painting on wood. The oldest of these was done by Paolo Veneziano and his sons in 1343-1345 depicting stories of St. Mark and other saints. It is now in the Church Museum. The present day one, the work of a late Gothic master, dates to the first half of the 15th century and may be admired on the rear side of the retable.

In the centre of the precious piece the majestic figure of Christ blessing is dominant, surrounded by the Evangelists holding open the book in which the words of holy scripture are replaced by gems, thus highlighting the preciousness of the word. Beneath Christ, Virgin Mary praying and, at her sides, the doge Ordelaffo Falier and empress Irene. Above Christ, the etimasia, the preparation of the throne of the Last Judgement, for God's second coming to earth, between two cherubim and two archangels. Above: the Crucifixion.At the sides, in three registers one above the other, there are twelve prophets, twelve apostles and twelve archangels. Aligned above are almost all the celebrations of the Byzantine Church: from the left, the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Presentation at the Temple, the Baptism of Jesus, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, the Descent into Limbo, the Resurrection, the Incredulity of Thomas, the Ascension and Pentecost. At the sides in a vertical position there are ten small pictures: on the left the salient events in the life of St. Mark and, on the right, episodes relating to his martyrdom in Alexandria and the transfer of his body to Venice. The great upper frieze from one of the three churches in the monastery of Christ Pantocrator in Constantinople shows the archangel Michael in the centre and six panels with Christ's Entry into Jerusalem, the Descent into Limbo, the Crucifixion, the Ascension, Pentecost and the Virgin Sleeping. The altar panel is completed by numerous enamelled medallions portraying saints worshipped by the Venetians.

[ The Pala d'Oro ]

Three phases may be identified in the history of this precious work: - The lower part dates to the time of doge Ordelaffo Falier (1102-1118). The enamels on the side frames, with stories of St. Mark, and on the upper frame with six deacons and the Christological celebrations of the liturgical calendar date to the same period, as does the central Pantocrator group. - The upper part belongs to the second phase. The series of six Byzantine celebrations and the archangel Michael in the centre perhaps arrived in Venice from Constantinople after 1204. - The third intervention occurred between 1343-1345 when, at doge Dandolo's behest, two Venetian

goldsmiths were entrusted with the task of framing the whole within a Romanesque arch (upper part) and a Gothic arch

St. Mark's Museum

St. Mark's Museum was established at the end of the 19th century. Recently the Museum has re-opened with a new fitting out made possible by the extension of the Museum surface between the historic area on the Basilica's vestibule and the former Doge's Sala dei Banchetti (Banquet Hall).

It houses objects of various kinds and origins that belong to the church. One of the most prestigious works is the quadriga of St. Mark's, moved from its original position in the centre of the façade after the last restoration. In the Sala dei Banchetti there is the weekday altar-piece by Paolo Veneziano, a painting on wood dating to the mid 14th century illustrating stories from the life of St. Mark. It was used long ago to cover the pala d'oro. The Museum also contains Persian carpets, liturgical vestments, illuminated manuscripts with the texts of St. Mark liturgies and fragments of ancient mosaics removed during restoration in the 19th century. Then there are tapestries in wool with episodes from the Passion of Christ and others in silk and silver illustrating stories of St. Mark.

On the occasion of the new fitting out, the official site of St. Mark's Museum has been launched in order to illustrate its history, the works of art and the new spaces.

The campanile

The campanile of St. Mark's is an imposing square plan tower about 99 metres high, crowned by a spire that was once a lighthouse for shipping. It is the prototype of all the campaniles of the lagoon area. It was first built in the 12th century on the site of what was probably a watchtower and rebuilt in its current form early in the 16th centurywith the addition of a belfry and with the spire faced in copper and topped by a sort of rotating platform with a statue of the Archangel Gabriel which functioned as a weathercock.

Of the five original bells only the largest remains. The others, now replaced, were destroyed when the tower collapsed in 1902. From the belfry loggia there is a spectacular bird's eye view of the city and the lagoon.

Against the base of the campanile is the balcony built by Jacopo Sansovino between 1537 and 1549 and decorated with marbles and bronzes

The bells | Further information

In the collapse of 14th July 1902, the 5 bells were smashed. They were all recast and donated by Pope Pius X.

There had always been five since ancient times and each one had a special name: Marangona was the main bell at whose sound practitioners of the various crafts (marangoni) began and stopped work. This bell also gave first notice of Meetings of the Upper Council and was followed by the peals of the Trottiera, so called because on hearing it the patricians had to hurry to the Ducal Palace, urging their horses to a trot. Then the Nona which rang midday, the Mezza Terza which announced Senate meetings and the Renghiera or Evil Deed, the smallest, which announced an execution.

The Sansovino Loggia | Further information The balcony, at the foot of the Campanile, is the architectural element that more than any other condenses the celebrative character of the new organisation of the centre of St. Mark's implemented by the church's Director of Works Jacopo Sansovino. Built between 1537 and 1549 to Sansovino's plan, in 1569 it was turned into a sentry post for dockyard workers

during the sessions of the Upper Council. The rich front elevation with three great arches and composite order columns of classical inspiration, overflowing with decorative beauty, makes the balcony Sansovino's least architectonic work which, more than any other, transmits that feature of the splendid and the picturesque proper to the Venetian environment. In the four niches Sansovino placed the bronze statues of Minerva, Apollo, Mercury and Peace. The marble reliefs with allegorical depictions are the work of his pupils: Venice as Justice (centre), The Island of Cyprus (right) and The Island of Candia (left). In 1663, the side arches having been transformed into portals, the broad external balustrade terrace was opened before the original façade, later closed with the elegant bronze gate by Antonio Gai (1735 - 37) who also created the marble reliefs of the two Putti on the external wings of the elevation. Sansovino's fine terracotta group The Virgin with Putto and San Giovannino was situated in the existing internal niche, now it can be seen in St. Mark's Museum. In the reconstruction of the Balcony in 1912, together with the Campanile, the original architectonic and decorative material was used as much as possible, but giving the greater dignity of marble facing to the two side facades which, since Sansovino's day, had remained in plain brick.

The Musical TraditionSt. Mark's Music Chapel was born at the beginning of the 14th century and very soon it becomes the centre of Venetian musical life, where style and ways of considering music suited to the magnificence of the Basilica developed. At the second half of the 16th century a new musical thought evolved leading to a radical change that influenced the centuries that followed. In the period when the greatest Renaissance composers actively took part in the Chapel's life (Willaert, Merulo, Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli, and Monteverdi), "broken choirs", echo sonatas - the instrumental parts with melodic lines not the same as the choral lines - were born in the Basilica, a new way of connecting music and word defines and with the aid of new instrumental techniques a new conception of the sound evolves.

Essential chronology of the Basilica

829 The body of St. Mark was transported from Alexandria, Egypt to Venice (Doge Giustiniano Partecipazio) 

................................................................................................................................................................................................

832 Consecration of the first church of St. Mark (Doge Giovanni Partecipazio)  

................................................................................................................................................................................................

976-978 The church burned owing to the revolt against Doge Candiano IV and was rebuilt under Doge Orseolo I the Saint 

................................................................................................................................................................................................

1063 Start of the rebuilding of the current church (Doge Domenico Contarini) 

................................................................................................................................................................................................

1071-1084 Start of the mosaic decoration (Doge Domenico Selvo) 

................................................................................................................................................................................................

1094 Consecration of the church (Doge Vitale Falier) 

................................................................................................................................................................................................

1204

Fourth Crusade and transport of marbles and works of art into the basilica that had been brought to Venice following the conquest of Constantinople (four horses, icon of the Madonna Nicopeia, enamels of the Golden Altar-piece, relics, crosses, chalices, patens, today in the treasure: Doge Enrico Dandolo)

 

................................................................................................................................................................................................

1265 Mosaic of St. Alipius with documentation of the exterior of the basilica 

................................................................................................................................................................................................

1343-1354 Construction of the Baptistery and Chapel of St. Isidore (Doge Andrea Dandolo)  

................................................................................................................................................................................................

1394 Construction of the iconostasis and sculptures decorating it by Jacobello and Pier Paolo dale Masegne Late 14th and early 15th centuries Gothic decoration of the façade with spires, nichel, and sculptures of angels and saints  

................................................................................................................................................................................................

1419 Fire on the front part of the basilica's roof 

................................................................................................................................................................................................

First half of the 15th century Tuscan artists (Maestro Nicolò and Pietro Lamberti and perhaps Jacopo della Quercia) worked on the sculptures of the façade and Florentine artists worked on the basilica's mosaics (Paolo Uccello is documented in 1425).

 

................................................................................................................................................................................................

Mid-15th century Mosaic ornament of the Mascoli Chapel 

................................................................................................................................................................................................

1486Construction of the Sacristy next to the apse (followed by the rebuilding of the small church of St. Theodore carried out by Giorgio Spavento, the basilica's foreman)

 

................................................................................................................................................................................................

1496 Documentary evidence of the basilica in the painting by Gentile Bellini, Procession in St. Mark's Square 

................................................................................................................................................................................................

.1504-1521 Construction of the Zen Chapel in the right wing of the atrium, which closed up the solemn entrance doorway coming from the lagoon

 

................................................................................................................................................................................................

1529Work done by Sansovino to strengthen the walls and domes of the church  

................................................................................................................................................................................................

1617 Accommodation of the Nicopeia altar and the altar of the Holy Sacrament (to the left and right of the high altar)  

................................................................................................................................................................................................

1797Fall of the Republic 

................................................................................................................................................................................................

1807 The basilica became the see of the Patriarch of Venice, until then at San Pietro a Castello.

.