A Penny for Annie's Thoughts: Sunday, November 25, 2007

I swear, we walked every alley in Venice....

Sunday morning in Venice - and it's the first day it's not raining - YAYYYY!!!!

We saw a little church near us that had a Mass this morning in Latin with Gregorian chanting, so we went. It was very beautiful, but inside that stone church was soooooo cold - you could actually see your breath, and outside was in the high 50s. After an hour, I was shivering so hard we left.

Then we headed for St. Mark's, because I wanted to go in the basilica. I've been in there 3 times before, and never saw St. Mark's tomb!!!! So I made up my mind that I WAS going to find it today.

Saint Mark (the Evangelist) is a big honkin' deal!! He is traditionally believed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark, a synoptic gospel of the New Testament. It narrates the life of Jesus from John the Baptist to the Ascension, but it concentrates particularly on the last week of his life (chapters 11-16). It portrays Jesus as a heroic man of action, a healer and miracle worker.

He was also a companion of Saint Peter, one of the 12 Apostles whom Jesus chose as his original disciples.

And it is suggested that he was one of the servants at the Marriage at Cana who poured out the water that Jesus turned to wine (John 2:1-11).

Mark is also said to have been:

one of the 70 Apostles sent out by Christ (Luke 10);
the servant who carried water to the house where the Last Supper took place (Mark 14:13);
the young man who ran away naked when Jesus was arrested (Mark 14:51-52); and
the one who hosted the disciples in his house after the death of Jesus, and into whose house the resurrected Jesus Christ came (John 20).

After Jesus' death, Mark the Evangelist went to Egypt, where he is said to have performed many miracles, and established a church there, appointing a bishop, three priests, and seven deacons. The people of Alexandria are said to have resented his efforts to turn them away from the worship of their traditional Egyptian gods. In 67 AD they killed him, and tried to burn his body, but it would not burn. Afterwards, the Christians in Alexandria removed his unburned body from the ashes, and then buried it.

Here's a little side note as to how Mark ended up here in Venice:

In 828, relics believed to be the body of St. Mark was stolen from Alexandria by two Venetian merchants and were taken to Venice. There is a mosaic on this Venetian basilica showing how the sailors covered the body relics with a layer of pork. Since Muslims are not allowed to touch pork, this action was done to prevent Muslim intervention in the relics removal.

This basilica was built to house the relics. But in 1063, St. Mark's relics could not be found. However, according to tradition, in 1094 the saint himself revealed the location of his remains by extending an arm from a pillar. The newfound remains were placed in a sarcophagus in the basilica.

The Basilica
That basilica is so magnificent inside, and usually so crowded that you only have 10 minutes to shuffle up one side and down another. Nowhere did it say the tomb of St. Mark. I told David I was going to search every inch of the church until I found him!

There are two little side doors, and one goes to what they call "The treasure" and the other to the "Pal D'oro."

We went to see the treasure (2 euros, or about $3), which was actually a collection of gold chalices on one side, and (David's favorite!) a collection of bone fragments from various saints!!! I don't know, it's an ANCIENT Catholic thing....

Anyway, we went on to the Pal d'oro or Golden Pall (2 more euros), which is an amazing Byzantine solid gold alter piece of the year 1105 with bazillions of huge precious gems encrusted in it.

Talk about priceless. It's huge - about 10 feet long, and absolutely breathtaking - it has the figure of Jesus in the middle, surrounded by the four guys writing the Bible (one of them is MARK!!!), and then the Virgin Mary and the Doge and his wife! (That's quite a trio!) and the disciples and archangels and on and on in a hierarchy. It's in the way back of the church, behind a large demi-wall.

So after we gawked at it and came out from behind the pall, we were walking by a simple cement box in glass case, and everyone was just walking by it. But I noticed it said something like "Corpos Divisi de Marci Evangelista" or something like that, and I stopped in my tracks and said to David, "Is that Mark's tomb????" and then I ran over to a guard and asked him, and he said yes it was. First I asked in Italian, then I asked in English just to be sure!

Right there, plain as anything, with everyone walking right by with not a second glance. I got chills. I said to David that I couldn't believe it was so plain, given that the basilica built to hold it was so incredibly ornate.

And David said, "Oh my God, is that THE St. Mark? Holy crap!!!!!" Well said, Mr. White.

Madonna del Orto
From there, we took a boat to the church of Madonna del Orto, which I'd been wanting to see. But it's very off the beaten track, so most tourists never see it.

Tintoretto lived near here, so this was his parish church. The inside is rich in his paintings, which is what draws most visitors out to this northern reach of the city. It's what drew me here!

Tintoretto, his fingers itching to fill the empty spaces on these chancel walls, is said to have asked no recompense other than the cost of the materials.

On either side of the high altar there are vast paintings of The Worship of the Golden Calf and The Last Judgment, each about 50 feet high.

Dell Orto

The charming noble brick facade and graceful interior of this church (dating from 1462) represents a blend of Gothic and Renaissance.

In the interior is Tintoretto's tomb; he was buried in 1594 in the chapel to the right of the Presbytery next to his son Domenico.

Other notable features of the church include a statue of a "Madonna of the Garden" (Madonno dell'Orto) in the chapel of San Mauro, which was discovered in a neighboring garden in the late 1300s and was said to possess miraculous powers. The statue served as an excuse to renovate the church, which originally was dedicated to St. Christopher.

The church has been used as a gunpowder magazine, a barn for storing straw, and a stable at various times in its nearly 650 years of existence. Only in Italy...

From the church, we crossed the bridge and walked to the Casa di Tintoretto where the painter lived and had his workshop until his death in 1594.

The house is now divided into apartments, and a graphics workshop for visiting artists--the Bottega di Tintoretto--is on the ground floor of the building.

Da Vinci exhibit
After that, we were walking around, and came upon the Church of St. Barnaba -- and it had an exhibition inside of models of several of DaVinci's inventions.

We had read about the exhibit when we were in Florence in March, and David really wanted to see it, but it was closed (Chiuso!). So imagine how happy we were to stumble upon it in Venice! And it was OPEN!!!

They had about 30 big models of DaVinci's flying machines, and gear-driven machines, and all kinds of things. They were made of wood and you could turn cranks and make parts work - it was really fascinating. David had a great time!

That DaVinci! What a genius! It's hard to believe he's the same guy who painted the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper...

He's the kinda guy who can really make you feel like a loser.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da_vinci

Here's a partial list of what else we did today, so I don't forget and can fill in later:

Vivaldi at St. Mauritzio