DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29898#0571
Bk. II. Ch. II.
ST. MARK’S, YENICE.
535
were probably added in the middle of the 13th century.1 The rood
loft dates from the end of the same century. The earlier mosaics in
the'domes date from the 12th century, and the marble casing of the
lower portion of the walls and the richly decorated pavement from the
12th and 13th centuries. The work of decoration was carried on
through succeeding centuries with occasional restorations, so that the
church itself constitutes a museum with almost every phase of work in
mosaic from the 12th to the 18th centuries.
Though from a strictly architectural point of view the disposition of
the design is not equal to those of some of our northern cathedrals
(except perhaps for the greater beauty of Byzantine domical con-
struction), it is impossible to find fault with plain surfaces when
they are covered with such exquisite gold mosaics as those of St.
Mark’s, or with the want of accentuation in the lines of the roof,
when every part of it is more richly adorned in this manner than
any other church of the Western world. Then too the rood screens,
the pulpit, the pala d’oro and the whole furniture of the choir are
so rich, so venerable, and on the whole so beautiful, and seen in so
exquisitely subdued a light, that it is impossible to deny that it is
perhaps the most impressive interior in Western Europe. St. Front
at Perigueux, with almost identical dimensions and design (Woodcut
No. 562), is cold, scattered, and unmeaning, because but a structural
skeleton of St. Mark’s without its adornments. The interior of
a 13th-century Gothic church is beautiful, even when whitewashed ;
but these early attempts had not yet reached that balance between
construction and ornament, which is necessary to real architectural
effect.
The same is true of the exterior ; if stripped of its ornament and
erected in plain stone it would hardly be tolerable, and the mixture of
florid 14th-century foliage and bad Italian Gothic details with the
older work, would be all but unendurable. But marble, mosaic,
sculpture, and the all-hallowing touch of age and association, disarm
the critic, and force him to worship when his reason tells him he
ought to blame.
Much as St. Mark’s must have been admired in the days of its
freshness, the Gothic feeling seems to have been so strong in Northern
Italy in the 11th and 12th centuries as to prevent its being used. as a
model. The one prominent exception is San Antonio, Padua (1237-
1307), which is evidently a copy of St. Mark’s, but with so much
Gothic design mixed up with it as to spoil both. Length was sought
to be obtained by using seven domes instead of five, and running an
aisle round the apse. The side-aisles were covered with intersecting
1 They are shown in the mosaic of the I end of the 13th century, as also the
doorway of St. Alipe, executecl at the I filling in of the great west window.—En.
ST. MARK’S, YENICE.
535
were probably added in the middle of the 13th century.1 The rood
loft dates from the end of the same century. The earlier mosaics in
the'domes date from the 12th century, and the marble casing of the
lower portion of the walls and the richly decorated pavement from the
12th and 13th centuries. The work of decoration was carried on
through succeeding centuries with occasional restorations, so that the
church itself constitutes a museum with almost every phase of work in
mosaic from the 12th to the 18th centuries.
Though from a strictly architectural point of view the disposition of
the design is not equal to those of some of our northern cathedrals
(except perhaps for the greater beauty of Byzantine domical con-
struction), it is impossible to find fault with plain surfaces when
they are covered with such exquisite gold mosaics as those of St.
Mark’s, or with the want of accentuation in the lines of the roof,
when every part of it is more richly adorned in this manner than
any other church of the Western world. Then too the rood screens,
the pulpit, the pala d’oro and the whole furniture of the choir are
so rich, so venerable, and on the whole so beautiful, and seen in so
exquisitely subdued a light, that it is impossible to deny that it is
perhaps the most impressive interior in Western Europe. St. Front
at Perigueux, with almost identical dimensions and design (Woodcut
No. 562), is cold, scattered, and unmeaning, because but a structural
skeleton of St. Mark’s without its adornments. The interior of
a 13th-century Gothic church is beautiful, even when whitewashed ;
but these early attempts had not yet reached that balance between
construction and ornament, which is necessary to real architectural
effect.
The same is true of the exterior ; if stripped of its ornament and
erected in plain stone it would hardly be tolerable, and the mixture of
florid 14th-century foliage and bad Italian Gothic details with the
older work, would be all but unendurable. But marble, mosaic,
sculpture, and the all-hallowing touch of age and association, disarm
the critic, and force him to worship when his reason tells him he
ought to blame.
Much as St. Mark’s must have been admired in the days of its
freshness, the Gothic feeling seems to have been so strong in Northern
Italy in the 11th and 12th centuries as to prevent its being used. as a
model. The one prominent exception is San Antonio, Padua (1237-
1307), which is evidently a copy of St. Mark’s, but with so much
Gothic design mixed up with it as to spoil both. Length was sought
to be obtained by using seven domes instead of five, and running an
aisle round the apse. The side-aisles were covered with intersecting
1 They are shown in the mosaic of the I end of the 13th century, as also the
doorway of St. Alipe, executecl at the I filling in of the great west window.—En.