The Rough Guide to Venice and the Veneto

missioned in 976 in Constantinople, the Pala was enlarged, enriched and rearranged
by Byzantine goldsmiths in 1105, then by Venetians in 1209 to incorporate
some of the less cumbersome loot from the Fourth Crusade, and again (finally) in
1345. The completed screen, teeming with jewels and minuscule figures, holds
83 enamel plaques, 74 enamelled roundels, 38 chiselled figures, 15 rubies, 300
sapphires, 300 emeralds, 400 garnets, 1300 pearls and a couple of hundred other
stones. Such is the delicacy of the work that most of the subjects depicted on the
screen are impossible to make out if you don’t have 40/20 vision, and you’d need
an encyclopedic knowledge of medieval iconography to decipher every episode
and figure, but the rough scheme is easy enough to follow.
In the top section there’s the Archangel Michael surrounded by medallions of
saints, with The Entry into Jerusalem, The Crucifixion, The Resurrection, Ascension,
Pentecost and The Death of the Virgin to the sides. Below, Christ Pantocrator is enclosed
by the four Evangelists, to the side of whom are ranked a host of angels, prophets
and saints; these ranks are framed on three sides by scenes from the life of Christ
(the horizontal band) and the life of Saint Mark (the vertical bands). The outer
frame of the entire Pala d’Oro is adorned with small circular enamels, some of
which (in the lower part of the frame) represent hunting scenes; most of these
enamels survive from the first Pala and are thus its oldest components.
Before leaving the sanctuary, take a look at Sansovino’s door to the sacristy
(invariably shut) – it incorporates portraits of Titian (top left) and Sansovino himself
(under Titian’s head).
The treasury
Tucked into the corner of the south transept is the door of the treasury (same
hours as Pala d’Oro; e2), installed in a thick-walled chamber which is perhaps
a vestige of the first Palazzo Ducale. This dazzling warehouse of chalices, icons,
reliquaries, candelabra and other ecclesiastical appurtenances is an unsurpassed
collection of Byzantine work in silver, gold and semi-precious stones. Particularly
splendid are a twelfth-century Byzantine incense burner in the shape of a domed
church, and a gilded silver Gospel cover from Aquileia, also made in the twelfth
century.
Much of the treasury’s stock owes its presence here to the great Constantinople
robbery of 1204, and there’d be a lot more of the same on display if the French
occupation force of 1797 hadn’t given Venice a taste of its own medicine by helping
itself to a few cartloads. To be fair to the Venetians, they at least gave the stuff
a good home – the French melted down their haul, to produce a yield of 55 gold
and silver ingots.
The sanctuary attached to the treasury, in which are stored more than a hundred
reliquaries, is hardly ever open to the public.
The baptistery and the Cappella Zen
The baptistery, entered from the south aisle (but reserved for prayer), was altered
to its present form by Doge Andrea Dandolo (d.1354), whose tomb (facing the
door) was Ruskin’s favourite monumental sculpture in the city. It was Dandolo
who ordered the creation of the baptistery mosaics of Scenes from the Lives of Christ
and John the Baptist, works in which the formality of Byzantine art is blended with
the anecdotal observation of the Gothic. “The most beautiful symbolic design of
the Baptist’s death that I know in Italy,” wrote Ruskin. The tomb of Dandolo’s
predecessor, Doge Giovanni Soranzo (d.1328), is on the right as you come in, and
Jacopo Sansovino – who designed the enormous font – lies beneath a slab at the
eastern end. The huge granite block at the altar is said to have been brought back
san marco
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The Basilica di San Marco
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