Stories of St. Mark Square

Pagan deities in the heart of Venice

The storytelling in mythological images, in monumental decorative cycles with a complex narrative structure, made its debut in Venetian art during the fourth decade of the 16th century, lagging behind Rome and other Italian centres. The famous Sansovinian Library offers the first evidence of the large-scale use of images of Greek gods and heroes in a public monument. Stories of St. Mark Square will talk to you about classical myths as an indication in Venice of this «new course of monumental architecture and the ways of self-representation of the Republic.».

The history of the construction of the Marciana Library is pretty troubled. Erected in two phases, the first sixteen arches (1537-1556) was the work of Jacopo Sansovino, while Vincenzo Scamozzi completed the last seven (1582-1588) up to the wing towards the pier. The building was intended for the dual function of housing the books of Cardinal Bessarione, donated to the Republic in 1468, and of being the seat of the most relevant magistracy of the Venetian state. The patrons of the work were the Procurators Vettore Grimani, Antonio Cappello and Giovanni da Legge. Sansovino’s project constituted an unprecedented innovation in Venetian architecture. It marked the transition from the 15th-century tradition of the Lombardo to the classical forms of the mature Renaissance, already in use for some time in the most advanced Italian artistic centres. The Library construction was also part of the urban redevelopment process of the Piazza: the renovatio urbis conceived by Doge Andrea Gritti (1523-1538).

Mythological images were not an absolute novelty in Venice. Hercules and his labours appeared on the St. Mark Basilica facade, where the context «exalted the allegorical dimension relegating the mythical content to the background.». The Library true novelty lies in the large-scale use of these images in a public context. The monuments that placed the world of pagan gods and heroes at the centre of the State celebration were the Loggetta of the Bell tower (1535-1542) – still in the form of a few allegorical pictures – and the Library. The drafter of the latter’s program remains anonymous; perhaps Sansovino himself, probably the patrons, Vettore Grimani in particular, and perhaps influential people close to Doge Gritti, such as Pietro Bembo, then historian of the Republic and librarian of Marciana.

The facade of the building has two orders, Ionic on the first floor and Doric on the ground floor. On the first floor, winged Victories decorate the arches pendentives. Figures of Muses ornate the intrados. On the ground floor, arcades with grotesque decoration alternate with arcades dedicated to classical gods and mythical episodes. Those with a mythological subject follow a constant compositional scheme: the head of the god in the keystone, personifications of rivers in the plumes, the full-length-figure of the divinity in the central intrados, and two reliefs with mythological episodes on the sides, a minor panel usually with a reclining figure above the arch.

The relief theory composes a world history based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses and other ancient sources. In the initial part, the narration proceeds chronologically, from the side near the bell tower towards the pier. The first arch shows Fanes surrounded by the zodiac; the two reliefs stage the myth of the creation of man by Prometheus and the adoration of fire stolen from the gods. They dedicated the following two arches to Saturn, the first divine generation, and to Jupiter, with the fall of the Giants and Phaeton, allusions to the punishment of pride and to divine justice, which the father of the Olympic gods guarantees. The reference to the theme of justice, always a crucial element of the myth of Venice, suggests interpreting the reliefs of the Jupiter arch as an allegory of good governance. The following ones abandon the chronological narrative and, with a series of myths linked to the main divinities of the classical pantheon, illustrate generic themes and values: Venus as dispenser of grace and beauty, Mercury symbol of eloquence and commerce, Minerva of wisdom, Neptune the lord of the seas, Apollo god of music, a metaphor of universal harmony that «finds natural application in the Serenissima legal systems and institutions».

The Library figurative program, after having covered the history of the world of origins, therefore underlines the present greatness of Venice and its institutions. The myth of the dispute of Attica in the Minerva arch becomes, for example, an opportunity to celebrate the ultramarine glories of the Serenissima. And although the episode sees the god of the sea losing, Neptune here evokes the maritime vocation of Venice. The theme of the sea domination also returns in the Ceres arch (Scamozzi’s wing of the Library towards the pier) with the tragic story of Frisso and Elle. From the heroine’s name comes Ellesponto, name of the stretch of sea that Venetians had travelled for centuries to reach Constantinople. Finally, in the Apollo arch, the story of Marsyas’s senseless challenge to the god of music becomes an image of good governance and a reflection of the justice of the magistrates who had their headquarters in the building. «As Apollo is the source of the cosmos harmony, so the perfection of the Serenissima government descends from the admirable harmony of its magistracies». We must recall that the government of Venice was based on a delicate system of checks and balances and that they preferred the exaltation of the State virtues to the individual.

You will be able to discover other interpretations of the classical myths of the Library sub-arches on September 22nd during a new meeting of the Stories of St. Mark Square cycle in the National Archaeological Museum of Venice courtyard. We will welcome Professor Luigi Sperti of the Ca ‘Foscari University, who dedicated some significant essays to reading the Library reliefs.

MDP
For quotes and insights:
L. Sperti, Temi ovidiani nella Libreria Sansoviniana a Venezia, in “Eidola. International Journal of Classical History” 8, 2011, pp. 155-178; L. Sperti, Cicli mitologici monumentali nel Rinascimento veneziano: ancora sui rilievi della Libreria Sansoviniana, in “Eidola. International Journal of Classical History” 15, 2018, pp. 131-143; L. Sperti, Musica e mito nell’arte veneziana del Cinquecento: i rilievi di Apollo e Marsia e di Mida nella Libreria Sansoviniana, in “Mare Internum” 11, 2019; W. Wolters, Piazza San Marco a Venezia, Verona 2018, pp. 73-84.

Thursday 22 September, 6.30 pm
Piazzetta San Marco, 17
L. Sperti – Classical myths in the reliefs of the Sansovinian Library
Reservations on 041 29 67 663

Photo credits: Luca Trolese