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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.
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.
Other mosaics dealing with St. Mark that supplement the presbytery story
are on the vault of the extreme right section of the atrium. This is the
point where the "holy way" of the ducal procession, arriving from the
pier, entered the church: the "sea gate ". It was only at the dawn of
the 16th century that this area was occupied by the building of the Zen
chapel which closes one of the most significant access points.
The preferential themes accentuated in this area are taken from the legend
of the praedestinatio of the Saint. The angel appears to him during a
shipwreck while he is sailing the lagoon from Aquileia towards Rome and
thence to Alexandria. The ship was at sea in correspondence to the present
day site of St. Mark's Church. The angel told the Evangelist that after
his death his body would rest there. Where the Piazzetta is today there
was originally the Byzantine mandrachio, the canal-port common to upper
Adriatic coastal centres. The early Venetian vessels used to berth in
the place where the Saint's body was disembarked from Alexandria and where
the church was built. It was a sacred place, a place in which the seat
of political power, the Ducal Palace, was legitimised by divine will in
the name of the State's patron saint, in the name of St. Mark. The martyrdom
episodes in the Zen chapel faithfully reflect the story of the passion
of Mark (Tower of Alexandria, i.e. the Lighthouse; The Saint Struck and
Beaten on the City Streets; Beheading in the Meadows of Boucolis, etc.),
narrated in popular language. The people entered here and read the other
biographical chapters of the traslatio in the Piazza mosaics.
The last episode is the Inventio, the enormous mosaic page originally
next to the Treasury door. It depicts the 1094 prayers and fasting petitioning
the Lord, at the behest of the Doge Vitale Falier, in order to discover
the whereabouts of the Saint's body which, after building of the just
completed present church, were quite unknown. Legend has it that St. Mark
indicated the position by extending his arm from a pillar, the one that
is today on the left of St. Clement's chapel. Amid aristocratic and popular
celebrations the local bishop and the Doge definitively placed the saint's
body beneath the high altar where it remains today. The great mosaic,
typically western in both stylistic language and size, is a precious chapter
of Venetian history at the end of the 12th century for both liturgical
customs (altar, priestly vestments and a portrait of the local bishop
Domenico Contarini) and civic customs (Doge Vitale Falier, procurators
of St. Mark's, sons and daughters of the nobility, men and women of the
people) and for its depiction of the church with the two pulpits, the
women's galleries and the internal bowl-shaped cupolas, antecedent to
the external wooden cupolas covered in sheet lead.
On the exterior of the main façade are the final episodes concerning
the Saint. The mosaics should be looked at starting from the first arch
underside above the right portal which shows the Recovery of St. Mark's
Body (around 1660) by the Venetians Buono da Malamocco and Rustico da
Torcello in 828 in Alexandria where the saint was buried after his martyrdom.
Next, to the left above the high portals, are the Arrival of St. Mark's
Body in Venice (approx. 1660), the Reception by the Doge of the Lords
(approx. 1728-29), and the Processional Transfer of the Saint to the Basilica,
the only antique 13th century mosaic because the others, though they observe
antique iconography, are later re-workings of the 17th and 18th centuries.
The lower mosaic register celebrates the Presence of St. Mark's Relics
in Venice and in the Church.
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![[ Zen Chapel ]](/images/common/piante/cappella_zenWAI.gif){kind=link}