The Piazza of San Marco - Essay Example

The Piazza of San Marco The Piazza of San Marco is considered to be the heart of Venice and a beloved place both for tourists and residents. This square is only the main city’s square and the brightest attraction, but also a social, religious and political center of Venice. The Piazza of San Marco takes a remarkable place among other famous squares owing to numerous historical buildings around its perimeter – it is literally impossible to find an average undistinguished building here. Being a unique architectural and historical landmark, the Piazza of San Marco became the venue for movies on repeated occasions. This is where the famous Grand Canal, the largest canal in Venice takes its beginning from and where the most popular sights are located. The square is very old and has its roots as far back as in the ninth century. It was created then as a small space in front of the Saint Mark’s Basilica, and later, in 1777, it was extended and preserved its size up to nowadays. As we are to compare the condition of the Piazza in the Renaissance (approximately in the year 1500) and nowadays we should mark that, according to the information above, the square remained in its original size at the time of making the map of Jacobo de Barbari and the painting by Gentile Bellini. Nevertheless, i should be mentioned that in the painting (Piazza San Marco, Venice, 1735) of another artist, Giovanni Antonio Canal, square has the same look as in the modern times. To add more, it is notable that the square isn’t actually a square, it is a trapezoid (Imboden).Regarding the general composition, the location of the buildings haven’t changed over centuries, but the details have. The architectural dominant of the Piazza is the Doge’s Palace, a building that used to serve as a residence for Venetian Doges. The palace is built in Italian gothic style. The first building appeared at that place back in the ninth century and looked as a fortress. In 976 this building was burned as a result of the rebellion, and later rebuilt in 1106. The major part of the modern palace was built between 1309 and 1424, and we see this building in Bellini’s picture. In fact, we can’t see much of it in the painting but the part that can be seen illustrates the typical traits of Italian gothic style in architecture. Later, in 1577, the palace suffered considerable damage in the fire. The artworks by Bellini and Titian were destroyed, too (Britannica). The special commission began to look for an architect who would decide what to do with the damaged palace. Some of them demanded a completely new one, and some offered to substitute destroyed parts modern elements created in the Renaissance style, but it was eventually settles that gothic style of the building should be preserved, and the palace was restored by Sansovino (Rößler). There is the thought that gothic style was preserved not only for the sake of esthetic purposes but also out of ideological reasons as that gothic palace symbolized grandeur and strength of Venice (Rößler). Nowadays the palace looks almost the same. Its oldest part is the southern façade facing St. Mark’s Basin. The massive building seems to rest on the chiseled lancet arches of the second floor. “But this is not at all disturbing; there is no feeling of top-heaviness” (Rasmussen). At the same time, there is a difference between exteriors of the old palace and the modern one. Decoration of the façades began after 1500, that is why some décor is absent on the pictures of Renaissance epoch. For example, the central balcony of the eastern façade was created in 1530s by Sansovino’s disciples. The balcony is also made in gothic style, framed with the lancet window, a statue of Justice and the sculpture of the doge Andrea Gritti. The palace in its modern condition preserves the traditions of the Venetian gothic that combines gothic traditions with the influence if Byzantine style, delicate chiseled balconies and arches with massive stone walls. The second key element of the square’s architectural ensemble is St. Mark’s Basilica which is the bright specimen of typical Byzantine basilica, yet with numerous peculiarities. As the building of the cathedral lingered on for centuries, each architectural style left its traces on the basilica leading it to its modern state. It was erected as a personal church for the doge in 828 and then was expanded twice by 1063 (Broanbent). Initially, it conformed to standards of Romanesque style. Rather small and simple five-domed cathedral at first, later it was complemented by chapels, the outer surface of it was reveted with marble, and its exterior was finished by the end of the 15th century. The basilica’s picture on Bellini’s painting evidences that exterior was already finished in 1500. The main western façade has 5 doors made as portals and three-layered arches, all the façades are lavishly embellished by marble facework, ornaments and pillars. The western façade is also decorated with the clogheads containing the statues of the saints. We also see 4 horse sculptures above the central entrance to the basilica. These horses were presumably created in Classic Antiquity period and were later brought from Constantinople. In the Bellini’s picture we see the original quadriga, while the modern photos depict replicas, and the originals are displayed in the basilica’s museum. There is one more considerable difference concerning St. Mark’s basilica. As we can see in modern pictures, there is a 100m high campanile standing near the basilica. This campanile was built in the early 16th century and had dilapidated almost completely by the beginning of the 20th century, and later was restored. Thus, Bellini did not depict this element in his work as it appeared later, and – again – is already present in the picture by Canal. The northern part of the modern square contains St. Mark’s Clocktower which belongs to early Renaissance. This is the tower with the clock accompanied by two lower buildings. The tower comprises several tiers that are garnished with decorative elements. Its top is decorated with bronze sculptures of the old and the young men connected with joints and clanging a bell. These statues are frequently referred to as moors due to the dark patina. The upper part of the tower has the sculpture of the winged lion with a book that is a symbol of Venice. The sculpture rests on the blue background with the stars symbolizing night sky. The next tier contains balconies and a statue of Virgin Mary with the child. A little lower we see the hourplate with roman numbers and a clock hand in the shape of the sun. The tower itself is built at the beginning of Merceria, so it has a two-floor high arch in it that serves as a passway from the square to the street. In general, the tower is a good specimen of early Renaissance traditions that presuppose balanced combination of medieval canons and classical elements. The proportions play the key part here along with balanced horizontal gradation of the building. Except that, the building has an air of classic antiquity with Corinthian orbs framing the ground floor of the tower. But if we look at Bellini’s painting dated with the year 1493, there will be no tower in it, just the old building. At the same time the tower is already present on the map created by Jacobo de Barbari in 1500. The fact is that the government made the decision to build a tower after 1493. The clocktower was built between 1496 and 1497. The architects used ultramarine and leaf-gold in abundance in order to decorate the tower lavishly. Barbari’s picture depicts the tower at the time when there were no side buildings added, that’s why the tower is surrounded by the old procuration buildings (built in in 12th century) that were lower than the modern ones and had only one floor above the arches on the ground floor. Thus, the tower was the highest building on the northern side of the square in 1500. One more detail is the sculptures on the highest tier of the tower: in Barbari’s picture this tier looks different. The reason is that the first sculpture put there was the statue of the Doge, but it was removed after the French conquest and substituted with the lion with a book. In general, the tower has survived through numerous renovation processes that included restoring of the clock, replacing the stairs with metallic ones and adding new pillars for better support. The new and the old procuration buildings literally frame the square. While the Piazzetta, the smaller part of the square between the Doges palace and the library, is “open” and faces the lagoon, the main square framed by the procuration buildings creates an impression of enclosed space. Both Barbari’s engraving and Bellini’s painting show these building in their original state having the arched ground floor and one floor above it. The Procuratie Nuove with its classical “Hellenic” pillars is located on the southern side and the Procuratie Vecchie – on the northern side. The Procuratie Vecchie – possessing the traits of gothic architectural style - was damaged by the fire in the 16th century and rebuild as a three-storey building after that. The new Procuratie was built in the 16th century and belongs to the Classical style. Until Napoleon conquered Venice, the two Procuraties had wings in the west of the square with the church connecting them. In the 19th century this part of the square was occupied by the Napoleonic wing. The Napoleonic wing of the Procuraties seen by us nowadays is the Neo-classical building. Today the Procuratie Nuove and the Napoleonic Wing are home for the museum. At last, St. Mark’s Library facing the Doge’s palace is the largest library in Venice. Built in the 16th century in the high Renaissance, this building is absent in the two compared pictures. Nevertheless, the library has survived and enriched its book collections till nowadays. This is a fine specimen of high Renaissance architecture with its pillars, statues and balconies. To conclude, I would say that the feature that was inherited from the East and is present almost in all the buildings in the square is lavishness and taste in embellishment and decoration. Reference list: 1. Britannica. “Doge’s Palace”. Last modified September 23, 2013. Accessed June 26, 2014. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/167924/Doges-Palace 2. Imboden, Durant. “Piazza San Marco”, Venice for visitors. Accessed June 26, 2014. http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/articles/piazza_san_marco.htm 3. Lien Barbara. The role of pavement in the perceived integration of plazas: an analysis of the paving designs of four Italian piazzas (master thesis, Washington state University, 2005). Accessed June 26, 2014. http://www.dissertations.wsu.edu/Thesis/Spring2005/b_lien_032505.pdf 4. Rasmussen, S. E. Experiencing Architecture. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1959, p. 85. 5. Rößler J.-C. “The fire in 1577 and the eastern wing of the Doges palace”. Accessed June 26, 2014. http://venice.jc-r.net/doges-palace/eastern-wing.html Read More