Venice

Byzantine Architecture.

We can trace the continuous growth of Venice through the successive styles of Byzantine, Gothic, early Renaissance and late Renaissance architecture. (See Ruskin's Stones of Venice.) The two most striking buildings in Venice, St. Mark's and the Doge's Palace, at once give us an example of the two earlier styles, the Byzantine and the Gothic, at least in their general design, though both are so capricious in development and in decoration that they may more justly be considered as unique specimens rather than as typical examples of their respective styles. In truth, owing to its isolated position on the very verge of Italy, and to its close connection with the East, Venetian architecture was a distinctly independent develop ment.

St. Mark's.

The church of St. Mark's, originally the private chapel of the doge, is unique in respect of its richness of material and decoration. It was adorned with the spoils of countless other buildings, both in the East and on the Italian mainland. A law of the republic required every merchant trading to the East to bring back some material for the adornment of the fane. Indeed, the building is a museum of sculpture of the most varied kind, nearly every century from the 4th down to the latest Renaissance being represented. The present church is the third on this site. Soon after the concentration at Rialto (see History below), a small wooden church was erected about the year 828 for the re ception of the relics of St. Mark, brought from Alexandria. St. Mark then became the patron saint of Venice in place of St. Theodore. This church was burned in 976 along with the ducal palace in the insurrection against the Doge Candiano IV. Pietro Orseolo and his successors rebuilt it on a larger scale. About 1063 the Doge Contarini began to remodel St. Mark's, Byzantine archi tects having a large share in the work: but Lombards were also employed, giving birth to a new style, peculiar to the district.

In plan (see the article ARCHITECTURE) St. Mark's is a Greek cross of equal arms, covered by a dome in the centre, 42 ft. in diameter, and by a dome over each of the arms. The plan is derived from the Church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople, now covered by the mosque of Mahommed II., and bears a strong resemblance to the plan of St. Front at Perigueux in France (1120). The addition of a narthex before the main front and a vestibule on the northern side brings the whole western arm of the cross to a square on plan. In elevation the facade seems to have connection with the five-bayed façade of the Kahriyeh Jame, or mosaic mosque, at Constantinople. The exterior façade is en riched with marble columns brought from Alexandria and other cities of the East. Mosaics are employed to decorate the span

drils of the arches. Only one of the original mosaics now exists. It represents the translation of the body of St. Mark, and gives us a view of the west façade of the church as it was at the be ginning of the 13th century before the addition of the ogee gables. The top of the narthex forms a wide gallery, communicating with the interior at the triforium level. In the centre of this gallery stand the four colossal bronze horses which belonged to some Graeco-Roman triumphal quadriga, and were brought to Venice by the Doge Enrico Dandolo in 1204. The south façade was recon structed in 1865-78.

Mosaic is the essential decoration of the church, and the archi tectural details are subordinated to the colour scheme. The old est remaining belong to the 12th century, and many of them, for example those of the domes of the atrium, are among the finest of their kind ; but the greater part have been restored in the 16th-19th centuries. Below the mosaics the walls and arches are covered with rare marbles, porphyries and alabaster from ancient columns sawn into slices and so arranged in broad bands as to produce a rich gamut of colour.

The eastern crypt, or confessio, extends under the whole of the choir and has three apses, like the upper church. Below the nave is anotlier crypt. The floors of both crypts have sunk consider ably and are often under water; this settlement accounts for the inequalities of the pavement. The original part of the magnificent mosaic pavement probably dates from the same period as the pavement at Murano, exactly similar in style, material and work manship, which bears the date 1140. The pavement consists partly of opus Alexandrinum of red and green porphyry mixed with marbles, partly of tessellated work of glass and marble.

The choir stands about 4 ft. above the nave and is separated from it by a marble rood-screen, on the architrave of which stand fourteen figures, the signed work of Jacobello and Pietro Paolo Belle Masegne, The Pala d'oro, or retable of the high altar (within which rests the body of St. Mark), is one of the chief glories of St. Mark's. It is one of the most magnificent specimens of gold smiths' and jewellers' work in existence. It was ordered in 976 at Constantinople by the Doge Pietro I. Orseolo, and was en larged and enriched with gems and modified in form, first by a Greek artificer in 1105, and then by Venetians between 1209 and 1345. It is composed of figures of Christ, angels, prophets and saints, in Byzantine enamel run into gold plates. The treasury of St. Mark's contains magnificent church plate and jewels.