#st. mark's basilica

[postcard-from-the-past]

St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, Veneto region of Italy

Italian vintage postcard

[conformi]

Mansilla + Tuñón, Ciudad de León Auditorium, León, Spain, 2001 VS Tessellated floor, South transept | St. Mark's Basilica, Venice, Italy, 11th - 12th century

[biostatprof]

St. Mark's Basilica (Basilica di San Marco), Venice Italy.

[innervoiceartblog]

Venice in Beautiful Color Images 125 Years Ago: The Rialto Bridge, St. Mark’s Basilica, Doge’s Palace & More...

[alessandroiiidimacedonia]

[taruntravell]

A One-Day Itinerary In Venice, City of Canals

Venice is a stunning city filled with canals, historic architecture, and a unique atmosphere. While one day is not enough to explore all of its wonders, you can still make the most of your visit by focusing on some of the city's highlights. Here's a one-day itinerary to help you experience the best of Venice:

Morning:

Start at St. Mark's Square (Piazza San Marco): Arrive early to beat the crowds and enjoy the peacefulness of this iconic square. Marvel at the stunning architecture, including St. Mark's Basilica, the Doge's Palace, and the Campanile.

St. Mark's Basilica: Head inside St. Mark's Basilica to admire its opulent Byzantine interior. Be sure to climb to the balcony for a panoramic view of the square and the city.

Doge's Palace: Explore the Doge's Palace, which was once the seat of Venetian power. The intricate details of the interior and the Bridge of Sighs are particularly noteworthy.

Breakfast: Grab a coffee and a pastry at one of the cafes in or around St. Mark's Square. Enjoy your breakfast while people-watching and soaking in the ambiance.

Late Morning:

Rialto Bridge: Walk towards the Rialto Bridge, one of Venice's most famous landmarks. Along the way, you'll pass through narrow, charming streets filled with shops selling Venetian masks, glassware, and other souvenirs.

Rialto Market: Explore the vibrant Rialto Market, where locals shop for fresh produce, seafood, and more. It's a great place to experience the daily life of Venetians.

Lunch:

Lunch at a Trattoria: Enjoy a leisurely lunch at a traditional Venetian trattoria. Try some local dishes like risotto, seafood, or pasta.

Afternoon:

Gondola Ride: No visit to Venice is complete without a gondola ride. You can find gondoliers near the Rialto Bridge or St. Mark's Square. Negotiate the price before starting your romantic journey through the canals.

Venetian Architecture: Stroll through Venice's charming neighborhoods, getting lost in the maze of narrow streets (known as "calli"). Admire the unique architecture, colorful buildings, and picturesque canals.

Gelato Break: Treat yourself to some authentic Italian gelato from one of the many gelaterias scattered throughout the city.

Evening:

Dinner: Head to a cozy Venetian restaurant for a delightful dinner. Try local specialties like seafood risotto, squid ink pasta, or a seafood platter.

Nighttime Stroll: Venice takes on a magical atmosphere in the evening. Take a leisurely walk along the canals, perhaps crossing some of the smaller bridges. You'll find that many of the historic buildings are beautifully lit up.

Rialto Bridge at Night: Return to the Rialto Bridge in the evening to see it illuminated, casting a romantic glow over the Grand Canal.

Remember that Venice can be crowded, especially during peak tourist season, so plan your day accordingly and make reservations for dining if possible. This itinerary will give you a taste of Venice's unique charm, but there's so much more to explore if you have more time. Enjoy your day in the City of Canals!

[tanuki-kimono]

Luscious gold & silver foils for this modern obi depicting the Basilica di San Marco on St Mark's Square in Serenissima Venice (poke @mafaldinablabla 🦁)

[unefemmemapparut]

🇮🇹 Venice, Italy. @ source

[illustratus]

Baptismal Font at St Mark's Basilica by Antonietta Brandeis

[emaadsidiki]

Venice, the feast of life.

– William WordsWorth

[postcard-from-the-past]

St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, Veneto region of Italy

Italian vintage postcard

[travelling-my-little-pony]

July is the month when Masquerade has a look at the fancy floor of the Basilica of St Mark, in Venice.

In Italy.

A bit more about it here:

http://www.basilicasanmarco.it/basilica/architettura/il-pavimento-tessulare/?lang=en

[contremineur]

La Carmagnola, Venice

La Carmagnola is the traditional Venetian name for a porphyry bust of a late Roman emperor, now on the external balustrade of St Mark's Basilica.

The diadem identifies the head as that of an emperor; dated on stylistic grounds between the 4th and 6th centuries, several scholars identify it as a depiction of Justinian. The flattened nose appears to be the result of damage and subsequent repolishing.

The head may have come from the Philadelphion in Constantinople, the original location of the Portrait of the Four Tetrarchs that is now on the Basilica's Piazzetta facade below. It was probably brought to Venice as part of the loot from the Sack of Constantinople, during the Fourth Crusade in 1204.

It has been suggested that a headless porphyry statue kept at the Archiepiscopal Museum in Ravenna belongs to the same original.

The condottiere Francesco Bussone da Carmagnola was beheaded on 5th May 1432 on the Piazzetta, where his head was presumably left exposed for some time, leading to the sculpture's traditional nickname.

text abridged from here

[a-modernmajorgeneral]

Another chalice in San Marco, also likely looted from Constantinople by the crusaders, incorporates a vivid green glass bowl of Islamic origin. Decorated with a stylized running hare motif, the bowl was cut with a rotating wheel, a lapidary technique commonly used for sculpting stones. As such, it was likely produced in Islamic lands: either in ninth- or tenth-century Iran, or perhaps tenth- or eleventh-century Egypt, where this technique was used. Eastern Roman artisans probably transformed the green glass bowl into a chalice in the eleventh century with the addition of a silver gilt setting, gems and pearls, and an enamel inscription. Now partially lost, the inscription once read, “Drink of this all of you, this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins.” These words, spoken by Christ at the Last Supper and repeated by the clergy during the celebration of the Eucharist in the Eastern Roman Empire, enable art historians to identify this vessel as a Eucharistic chalice with confidence.

But how did this Islamic bowl end up in the Eastern Roman Empire and why did the Eastern Romans transform it into a chalice for the Eucharist?

It is possible that the green glass bowl came to Constantinople the same way that it eventually traveled from Constantinople to Venice: as booty from war (though not a crusade). The Eastern Romans made military gains against their Islamic neighbors to the east during this period and may have taken this glass bowl as plunder from Islamic lands. On the other hand, war was not the only way that objects traveled between cultures in the medieval Mediterranean, and there is no evidence that this bowl was brought to Constantinople as war booty. Historical documents record that glass vessels like this one were sometimes among luxury objects exchanged as diplomatic gifts by Eastern Roman rulers and their Islamic neighbors, so it is possible the green glass bowl came to Constantinople as a diplomatic gift from the Abbasids, Fatimids, or some other people. It is also possible that the green glass bowl simply came to Constantinople through trade. The tenth-century Book of the Eparch (a book of Eastern Roman commercial law) testifies that there was a market for Islamic goods in Constantinople at this time. But since we lack explicit textual evidence to corroborate any of these theories, we cannot say for certain how the green glass bowl came to Constantinople.

Materiality and ornament

As with the Romanos chalices, the materiality of the green glass bowl was surely an important factor in this object’s reuse. The stunning green hue of the glass bowl is unusual among surviving Islamic glass work. Both its color and its fashioning with a wheel were likely intended to produce the appearance of a precious stone, such as an emerald. And as with other Eastern Roman glass chalices, the transparency of the green bowl would have enabled worshippers to glimpse the Eucharistic wine while the inscription around its rim affirmed that it was the very blood of Christ.

The bowl’s running hare motif, however, is unique among surviving Eastern Roman chalices. Many Eastern Roman viewers would likely have recognized the angular hare motif as not Eastern Roman and perhaps even as Islamic in origin. This raises questions about why such a vessel might be converted into a chalice for the Eucharist, and how Eastern Roman users would have understood it.

Art, court, and diplomacy

To answer these questions, it is important to understand this vessel as a product of both the church and court of Constantinople. Although this chalice bears no donor inscription like those attributed to emperor Romanos, its costly materials and high quality of craftsmanship indicate that it too was likely commissioned by an emperor or some other elite patron in the court in Constantinople. As such, we can understand this vessel as one of many examples of Eastern Roman appropriation and imitation of Islamic culture in the tenth and mid-eleventh centuries. Such Islamic or Islamicizing elements appear on Eastern Roman clothing, jewelry, and lead seals of this period. Eastern Roman emperors and members of the court likely adopted such Islamicizing objects to project wealth, power, and a cosmopolitan identity.

In addition to their primary ritual functions, there is also evidence that sacred objects like chalices sometimes played a role in Eastern Roman diplomacy. The eleventh-century Eastern Roman historian John Skylitzes describes how the emperor Leo VI led Arab diplomats into the church of Hagia Sophia and showed them sacred vessels and other church objects—an episode illustrated here in a twelfth-century copy of Skylitzes’s history. In this scene, two Arab figures enter the church from the left, while the emperor—crowned and clad in gold—points to a golden chalice and other church objects held for display by church officials.

So, we can conclude that the patron of the chalice with hares likely intended Eastern Roman viewers (and perhaps even foreign visitors) to recognize the Islamic origin of the green glass bowl with hares. To display such a beautiful object of Islamic origin in tenth- and eleventh-century Constantinople was to project wealth, power, and a cosmopolitan identity. If there were any concerns about using an Islamic object for Christian religious purposes, the chalice’s Eastern Roman setting with its Christian inscription must have rendered the glass bowl suitable for use in the celebration of the Eucharist. An inventory of objects in the church of San Marco from 1325 mentions a “green chalice decorated with silver,” perhaps referring to the chalice with hares and suggesting that this object may have continued to function as a Eucharistic vessel even after it was transferred from Constantinople to Venice. Together with the Romanos chalices, the chalice with hares shows the important roles that materiality, ornament, and craftsmanship could play in an object’s cross-cultural mobility, reuse, and preservation through the centuries.

Byzantine chalice which originated as a green glass cup or bowl which originated from either Egypt or Iran in the 9th-11th century. When it made it's way to the Byzantine Empire it was decorated and turned into a chalice

[dayapandey]

Secure your St. Mark's Basilica tickets and delve into the ancient treasures housed within this magnificent religious landmark. Explore centuries of history and marvel at the breathtaking collection of religious artifacts, each telling its own story. Whether you're an art aficionado or simply seeking a moment of spiritual reflection, St. Mark's Basilica promises an unforgettable experience for you and your loved ones. Wander through grand halls adorned with priceless masterpieces and soak in the sacred atmosphere of this iconic symbol of Venice. Book your tickets now and embark on a journey through time and faith in the heart of Italy's cultural heritage.