Visiting St. Mark’s Basilica, Venice
If you go to Venice, or rather if you go and have the patience or dogged energy to join a queue that snakes across the square, then don’t miss the mosaic faces of St. Mark’s Basilica. You must be prepared to inch forward in the relentless sun and forgo any thoughts of a cappuccino in the shade. If you have got that far, then summon the last of your waning determination and head up the precipitous flight of stairs on your right just inside the main door.
Finding the mosaics
In a city so clogged with tourists, it is astonishing that all you have to do is hold on tight to the handrail and not look down. Suddenly, you will find yourself virtually alone in a deep balcony over looking the nave. The mosaicked gold domes of the church ascend in front of you, one after the other, each implausibly, superbly decorated. Apparently, they turn the lights on from time to time which must make them look quite different. However, in the natural gloom, toned down by centuries of accumulated dust, they have the dull glow of treasure found in a tomb.
Byzantine mosaic fragments
You are not allowed to take photos of the interior mosaics. But carry on along the balcony and around the corner and there is a small museum of Byzantine mosaic fragments taken from the church.
To get there you pass the actual bronze stallions looted from Constantinople at the beginning of the 13th century. We stood there, we marvelled and pondered, and still we were quite alone.
Remember, it’s not often you can get up close and personal with 14th century mosaics. Works from that period tend to be church decorations and therefore high on domes and ceilings. The proximity to the mosaic faces of St Marks makes them particularly exciting.
There were plenty of the usual bearded suspects:
Wonderful melted faces:
An obligatory gory scene:
Plus an array of saints, kings and warriors:
We spent a happy hour or so with the mosaics. Notice how stone are smalti are mixed. How the curves of flesh and drapes of cloth are created with depth and shadow. Finally, take time to appreciate these gorgeous flowing tresses:
