The Pala d'Oro of San Marco in Venice in its art historical and historical contexts
Date
1993
Authors
Broden, Nancy Gail
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Abstract
The history of the Pala d'Oro, the enamel gold and gem-studded altarpiece on the high altar of the church of San Marco in Venice, is long, complicated, and by no means certain. The Pala d'Oro's mid fourteenth-century inscription states that the altarpiece was commissioned in 1105 from Constantinople by Cage Ordelafo Falier, and that it was renovated in 1209 and again in 1345 by Doge Pietro Ziani and Doge Andrea Dandolo respectively. Only two other primary sources, John the Deacon's early eleventh-century Chronicon Venetum et Gradense and Andrea Dandolo's fourteenth-century Chronicon Venetum, mention either Falier's Pala d'Oro or its predecessor, an altar-frontal produced in Constantinople for Doge Pietro I Orseolo (976-978). Thus hampered by a lack of documentation about the work, scholars have based their studies of the altarpiece on the visual evidence provided by the stylistic analysis of the Pala d'Oro's constituent enamels. This method yields inconclusive results, however , and fails to provide a measure of the altarpiece's significance. The goal of this thesis is thus to explore two aspects of the Pala d'Oro's importance by examining the altarpiece in both its art historical and historical contexts.
The first chapter consists of a detailed description of the Pala d'Oro's eighty-three large enamels, and a consideration of the main theories and arguments presented to date by scholars studying the altarpiece. Examination of the primary and secondary sources concerning the Pala d'Oro's history suggests that the works original composition survives in the lower section of the altarpiece. Pursuing this theory, the second chapter considers possible iconographic sources, both western and eastern, and minor and monumental, for the selection and arrangement of the large enamels found on the lower section of the Pala d'Oro. This iconographic study places the altarpiece in its art historical context and shows that the Pala d Oro, like early twelfth-century Venice, was neither wholly western, nor entirely Byzantine but a distinctly Venetian amalgamation of both traditions. The third chapter place the altarpiece in its historical context ty e examining the cult of St Mark in Venice from the ninth to the fourteenth centuries. The cults political nature is revealed through an examination of the changes made to its legends, ceremonies and works of art between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. The original appearance of Doge Falier's Pala d'Oro and the additions made to it in 1209 and 1345 suggest that the altarpiece served to chart Venice's changing relationship with the Byzantine Empire during this period.
Thus, contrary to one scholarly opinion which holds that the Pala d'Oro is merely a magnificent example of an amazing stylistic misunderstanding' this thesis places the altarpiece in its art historical and historical contexts, and finds it to be a remarkable document of the Venetians' view of their history from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries.