Section dedicated to the Sculpture

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Section dedicated to the 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.