The recovery of the corpse of St. Mark
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| The recovery of the corpse of St. Mark |
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| Jacopo Tintoretto , between 1562 and 1566 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 398 × 315 cm |
| Accademia (Venice) |
The recovery of the corpse of St. Mark is the title of a painting by the Venetian painter Jacopo Tintoretto from 1562 to 1566. It hangs in the Gallerie dell'Accademia (Galleries of the Academy) in Venice . The illustration opposite shows the condition of the work after the restoration, which took place in the middle of the 20th century, through which a repainted pyre was made visible again in the background.
In 1562, Tommaso Rangone , Grand Master of the Scuola Grande di San Marco in Venice, commissioned Jacopo Tintoretto to portray the miracles of St. Mark for the decoration of the rooms of the Scuola . In addition to the salvage , there were also The Finding of the Body of St. Mark ( Pinacoteca di Brera , Milan) and The Rescue of a Saracen . The fact that Markus and his miracles are the subject of the paintings can be explained by his status as the patron saint of Venice and by his function as patron saint of the Scuola .
Image description and interpretation
The salvage shows an episode of the legend of the martyrdom of the Evangelist Mark in pagan Alexandria in the year 62. It depicts the moment when the Christians seized his body during a sudden thunderstorm after the pagans had already laid him on the stake.
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In the foreground you can see a group of seven people and a camel, who are in a deep space that is surrounded by architecture. According to legend, this square is located in Alexandria, but it is reminiscent of St. Mark's Square in Venice and also has the characteristic Venetian paving made of brick and Istrian limestone. It is a, modeled after St. Mark's Square fantasy architecture: the pagan temple in the background is an exaggerated and embellished modification of the 1807 demolished church of San Geminiano and the Palace left a mixture of the old Magistrates and the Biblioteca Marciana . On the left in the middle distance people in light robes flee into the arcades of the palace to protect themselves from the thunderstorm. At the front of the square you can see the temple in front of which a large brush can be seen. Above the white buildings, a deep, dark, cloud-covered sky with lightning flashes, which is colored from light pink to blood red, stands out in high contrast.
The persons in the foreground on the right, carrying the lifeless body of St. Mark, are the Christians who are carrying the saint away to be buried. The body of the dead forms a diagonal axis, so that the impression is created that the people are moving out of the picture with their loads. To their left you can see two people lying on the ground, one holding the reins of the camel and the other a large cloth. Reins and cloth form parallels to the architectural lines of flight; the cloth waving out of the picture on the left emphasizes the axis of the refugees and intensifies their movement at lightning speed . The fallen camel driver is a reminder of the martyr's death.
The design of the picture corresponds to the Legenda Aurea . It describes how Mark the Evangelist was dragged to death on a rope. Shortly thereafter, there is a passage that aptly describes the events in Tintoretto's painting: “Now the pagans wanted to burn him. But, behold, there was a rustling in the air, and hail came down, and the thunder rolled and the lightning flashed, so that everyone tried to escape, and left the holy body unharmed. Then the Christians took him and buried him in the church with great dignity »
history
This print shows the original condition (17th to 18th century)
Before the restoration with the overpaintings from the 19th century
The painting was to the early 19th century in the Scuola and was closed as this under Napoleon, in the Biblioteca Marciana. Serious changes were made there: The painting was cut left and right, added to the upper and lower edge of the picture, and the pyre in the background was painted over. Now the motif could also be interpreted as the transfer of the St. Mark's relic by Venetian merchants in 828 from Alexandria to Venice. Before that, the saint's soul ascending to heaven could still be seen in the upper left corner of the picture. It was represented by an act modeled on the lifeless body of Mark, which in its inclined position took up the direction of the saint carried. Below him were two pagans, one of them lying on the ground, fighting over a protective cloth. The head and upper body of one of them can still be seen today in the lower left corner of the picture. During a restoration in 1959, the pyre was made visible again. A 28 cm wide strip of fabric that had been cut off on the left and added at the top turned out to be too damaged to be reattached, so the figure of the standing pagan is lost.
The special position of the client in the picture
Since the Scuola refused to erect a memorial on the facade for its head Rangone in return for the donation, he had himself painted in this and two other paintings in the cycle. As a figure he is almost in the center of the painting, as the man who supports the saint's head. He stands out from the picture not only because of his central position, but also because he wears a noble toga that distinguishes him from the other figures in the picture. While it was common for members of Scuole integrate into paintings, but mostly unobtrusive and in groups. Rangone is therefore an exception. This caused trouble: in 1573, the brothers asked their former headmaster to take back the paintings, which the latter refused. Instead, it was given back to Tintoretto to paint over at his own expense. However, he sent it back in 1577 without any changes.
Notes and evidence
- ↑ Pietro Paoletti, on the other hand, describes in his book, “La Scuola Grande di San Marco”, that the representation shows the moment of the so-called Translatio Santi Marci, that is, San Marco's transfer from Alexandria to Venice. According to him, Saint Mark is being carried to a ship by two Venetian merchants, Bonus di Malamocco and Rustico di Torcello, to be brought to Venice.
- ↑ More on this in the Legenda Aurea and in Roland Krischel's monograph from 1994
- ↑ a b c Boris Hohmeyer: Venice in Egypt. In: art - the art magazine. September 20, 2015, archived from the original on September 20, 2015 ; Retrieved November 26, 2015 .
- ↑ More on this in the Legenda Aurea by Jacobus de Voraigne.
literature
- Francesco Valcanover: The Galleries of the Accademia . Venezia: Storti 1981; P. 52
- Tom Nichols: Tintoretto. Tradition and Identity . London: Reaction Books 1999; Pp. 139-149
- Pietro Paoletti: La Scuola grande di San Marco . Venezia: 1929
- Carlo Bernari: L'Opera completa del Tinoretto . Milano: Rizzoli Ed. 1987
