Re: VMs: RE: St Mark's Basilica in Venice...?

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Mark,

At 21:12 31/10/2003 +0100, Mark Hippenstiel wrote:
> Though I would agree that the 'onions' (for want for a better word) do
> bear a vertain resemblance to San Marco's, from my feeling I'd say the
> existence of distinct features as in the differently shaped bases
> suggests that the drawing depicts something in a more precise way.

I would say that they precisely resemble the kind of shapes seen in the 
VMs' pharma section, but that the *visual composition* seems to have been 
inspired by an architectural (ie representational) drawing of St Mark's 
Basilica as seen from the Campanile.

Again, the decorations on some of the pharma shapes (most notably the 
object on the bottom left of f89r) in the VMs' pharma section look (to me) 
a lot like those found on Venetian Murano glassware from 1450-1500 (for 
example, there are some fine examples in the V&A Museum in London, & 
probably 100's more in Venice itself).

As Murano is one of the islands that make up Venice (where the famous 
glassware was made), I don't think my claim (that that the central rosette 
is intended to represent Venice) is too extraordinary - in fact, the whole 
rosette could be seen as a wonderful visual pun, merging Murano glassware 
with St Mark's "onion-skin" domes.

> Wouldn't that be so, you could disregard the whole drawing as being
> imaginary and useless for further investigation. Supposed it is for
> real, you'd have to take into account that there are six onions, not
> five, and they are arranged in a circular way. Ihmo, this would rule out
> San Marco, at least if we take that the current shape is 'authentic'
> i.e. unchanged and has not undergone a lot of reviews during
> construction of the building.

AIUI, external changes to St Mark's Basilica in the last, say, 900 years 
have been fairly limited - updating has largely involved "appropriating" 
relics from elsewhere (or else making copies of Byzantine art) and 
incorporating them into the fabric of the building.

> The aspect of availability of a high persepective is interesting in any
> case, but remember that height is something you do not necessarily
> achive by artificial buildings; for instance you could climb on a nearby
> hill to have a view from above.

There are not too many nearby hills in the heart of Venice... but I do take 
your point. :-)

All the same, the perspective of the object in the VMs central rosette 
points to the object's being viewed from both above *and* close by. The 
Campanile is really very close and really very tall... I wonder if any 
other similar views of Byzantine domes might present themselves? (For 
example, I couldn't find any evidence of one in Istanbul, but who's to say?)

> What do you make of the canopy thing between the 'towers'?

One possible interpretation might be of the central onion-skin dome 
metaphorically *unfolded* (like "here's a church, here's the steeple, open 
the doors, and here's all the people"). The suggestion elsewhere has been 
that stars in the VMs represent people - perhaps the stars in the centre 
are (as I suggested before) the Senate and the Council of Ten. Still, 
that's just my speculation - I stand by the basic art-historical arguments 
(a) that the central rosette represents Venice, and (b) that the "castle" 
rosette represents Milan.

Both Milan and Venice have a close association with canals, and the page 
does seem to represent waterways of some sort... so maybe the whole answer 
is there if you want to find it. :-)

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling..... 


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