| |
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.
|
|
