VENICE, SAN MARCO: THE GOLDEN ALTARPIECE SAVED...

St. Mark's Basilica houses inside it the precious Pala d'Oro, a majestic Byzantine work of goldsmithing produced in the 10th century. Its creation required an exquisite technique of artistic enamel decoration called cloisonné.

 

<<…sottili fili (filigrane) o listelli o piccoli tramezzi metallici (di solito rame), celle o alveoli (detti in francese cloisons), vengono saldati o incollati ad una lastra di supporto dell'opera da costruire; successivamente quindi, nelle zone rilevate dal metallo, viene colato dello smalto, ottenendo quindi una sorta di mosaico le cui tessere sono circoscritte esattamente dai listelli metallici...>> (https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloisonn%C3%A9)

 

Over time, the Golden Altarpiece, was increasingly enriched until its completion in the 14th century;

The structure, placed on the high altar of the Basilica, is in Gothic style in silver and gold and measures 334x212cm. On it are depicted numerous sacred images with Christ in the center surrounded by the Evangelists, prophets, apostles, archangels on the sides, and in the frame the life story of St. Mark. But the special feature that leaves everyone dazzled is the extremely high amount of pearls, enamels and precious stones it contains:

...for a total of 1927 gems!

Precisely because of this peculiarity, one might be surprised that the Altarpiece has come to this day without being stolen.

Tradition has it that, in fact, there was a particular moment in history where the Golden Pall was in serious danger:

 

Napoleon, who found himself in her presence during the invasion, was misled by an all-Venetian linguistic "game" that allowed her to be saved;

"Xe tutto vero!" said the Venetians to the Emperor...without thinking too much about the fact that the Italian word "VERO" in Venetian dialect also means "GLASS"...

Napoleon, fortunately, understood that the work was all glass (thus worthless) and left it in place, taking other valuables back to France.

 

Thanks to this dialectal qui pro quo , the Golden Pall was saved, granting us the privilege of still being able to admire it in its beautiful original "home."

  

We would like to thank the following sources for the information gathered and invite you to further investigate:

 

 

 

Reference Photo:

 

Golden Shovel Detail

Ph: Prof. Mortel, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

 

Golden Shovel

Ph: Keete 37, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

 

Photos Basilica San Marco

Photo 178344546 © Andrés Membrive / Dreamstime.com.

 

Venice Photos

Photo 60427863 © Rudi1976 / Dreamstime.com.