« Travel Insurance - The Smart Choice | Main | Another Component of Weight Loss »
November 29th - A History of Art - Bronze Horses at the Basilica Di San Marco, Venice
Basilica Di San Marco
Basilica di San Marco (Saint Mark's Basilica), church in Venice that was begun in its original form in 829 (consecrated in 832) as an ecclesiastical structure to house and honour the remains of St. Mark that had been brought from Alexandria. St. Mark thereupon replaced St. Theodore as the patron saint of Venice, and his attribute of a winged lion in time became the official symbol of the Venetian Republic. San Marco Basilica, built beside the Palazzo Ducale, or Doges' Palace, also served as the doge's chapel. It did not become the cathedral church of Venice until 1807.
The first basilica was burned in 976 during a popular revolt against the doge Pietro Candiano IV but was restored under his successor, Doge Domenico Contarini (d. c. 1070); the present basilica was completed in 1071. The plan is a Greek cross, and the building is surmounted by five domes. The design is distinctly Byzantine, and it is likely that both Byzantine and Italian architects and craftsmen were employed in the construction and decoration. Over the centuries, additions of sculpture, mosaics, and ceremonial objects have increased the church's richness. The famed four bronze horses on the west facade gallery, for example, were brought to Venice at the time of the Fourth Crusade (1204) from Constantinople, where they had been part of a Greco-Roman triumphal quadriga (a sculpture of a car or chariot drawn by four horses abreast). Though originally placed in the Arsenal, they were set up in the mid-13th century on the exterior of San Marco. They were removed to Paris by Napoleon but were returned in 1815.
The interior is decorated throughout with mosaics on gold ground and with many varieties of marble; the floor is of inlaid marble and glass. In the restricted light their colours glow. The screen separating the choir from the nave has marble statues, masterpieces of Venetian Gothic sculpture by Jacobello and Pier Paolo dalle Masegne.
San Marco Altarpiece
The Campanile, separated from the church, was originally begun under the doge Pietro Tribuno (d. 912). It was adapted into its present familiar form early in the 16th century. In 1902 it collapsed but by 1912 had been rebuilt on its original site.
The four bronze horses now seen at the Basilica di San Marco in Venice were orginally made for the Hippodrome in Constantinople (now Istanbul), which was then under Roman occupation. The Hippodrome, the largest in the ancient world, could seat 60,000 spectators. A low wall ran round much of the stadium and this was decorated with dozens of monuments, including the brone horses. In 1204, during the crusades, the horses were stolen by Christian knights and taken to Venice.
For many years the four horses stood on th eLoggia dei Cavalli (part of the basilica's facade), from where visitors can look out over St. Mark's Square. Today the horses on the loggia are replicas; the originals were removed in 1979, in the cause of their preservation, and can now be seen inside the cathedral's museum. For centuries during medieval times these horses symbolized the power and prestige of the Venetian Republic; they were probably made during the second century AD. Their sculptor is generally assumed to have been Roman. The material used was bronze, an alloy of copper and tin- the bronze used here was very rich in copper - and the bronze was then gilded.
