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The Pentecost cupola
Navata centrale |
The
Pentecost cupola
The next cupola, the Pentecost, celebrates and glorifies
the descent of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church.
On the two vaults at the sides, the martyrdoms of the apostles:
the one on the right is still intact in the mediaeval version
while the one on the left was redone during the 17th century.
These and other replacements were made necessary by the mosaics
falling off as a result of various causes documented in ancient
chronicles (dampness, fires, earthquakes).
While the setting of the Ascension cupola resolves into a unity
of motifs converging towards Christ who rises to heaven at the peak,
the Pentecost cupola is resolved in an emanation of twelve rays
of silver light from the dove of the Holy Spirit above the throne.
The rays fall in the form of a red flame on the heads of the twelve
apostles who are seated on chairs. Between the sixteen windows
below are depictions of the peoples among whom the apostles,
illuminated by the Holy Spirit, spread the word of Christ.
On the four spandrels beneath the cupola there are four angels
of unparalleled beauty: the elegance of their highly stylised forms,
created by a complex play of lines, and their chromatic delicacy,
are typical features of the most refined Greek masters.
The apostles stand out for their monumentality, for the expressionism
of their faces (accentuated by the play of lines already noted in
the presbytery cupola prophets and the central cupola apostles),
for the variants of their positions on the thrones, for the decorative
richness of the drapery and for the alternation of colours on their
tunics and cloaks . |
The Pentecost, which with the descent of the Holy Spirit completes the
Trinity after the Father (Prophets) and Son (Ascension), is the masterpiece
of another great artist working in St. Mark's in the fourth and fifth
decades of the 12th century. Notwithstanding the 15th and 19th
century restorations the beauty of this cycle remains unaltered in the
preciousness of its mosaic materials (gold, silver, and masterfully cut
and laid stone tesserae) and in the originality of its compositional layout
which is absolutely coherent with that of the other two: in the first,
the prophets awaiting the advent of the Son; in the second the convergent
motion of the apostles towards Christ ascending at the peak, and then
the motion outwards from the centre in which the Holy Spirit radiates
its light on the apostles.
Absolute iconographic and compositional unity then, over a space of time
estimable at three to, at the most, four decades for completion of a grandiose
programme, fruit of cooperation between three main masters - with the
collaboration of a highly skilled team - who developed different aspects
of their Greco-Byzantine culture in accordance with the opportunity presented
by the iconographic theme to which they had to give representational form.
The Ascension offered a springboard for the display of special skill in
giving movement to the figures, all of them outstretched and almost levitating
towards Christ ascending to heaven. The Pentecost gave the chance to create
light effects (silver rays on a gold background) of great impact and preciousness,
while the awaiting of the Son was an opportunity to create figures in
all their majestic prophetic intelligence.
The 12th century mosaicists were Greek, but in the 13th there was collaboration
between Constantinople masters and those who had been trained in Venice.
The Venetian conquest of Constantinople with the Crusades in 1204 meant
that the Lords had to bring the splendour of the ducal chapel into line
with the new role of ruler of a quarter and a half of the Empire .
The Apocalypse
and Last Judgement Vaults |
The
Apocalypse and Last Judgement Vaults
Above the entrance the Apocalypse and Last Judgement vaults,
the latter also visible from the atrium through the "well" opening,
with renaissance mosaics largely redone in the 19th century,
represent the point of arrival of the spiritual message contained
in the mosaics with scenes from John's apocalyptic visions
and with the Last Judgement.
The two vaults, together with other zones, were subject to considerable
structural intervention involving difficult restoration work that
continued over almost a century, from the first half of the 19th
to the 30's of the 20th .
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