St Mark's Lion
The lion of Mark is the symbol for the evangelist Mark , in pictures of the evangelist it is his attribute , it was the symbol of the Republic of Venice and today of the city of Venice .
It is an element of the Italian naval flag.
Origin of the symbol
The connection of the Evangelist Mark has its oldest source - like the attributes of the three other evangelists, bull, eagle and man (or angel) - in the book of Ezekiel of the Old Testament . The place in the book of the prophet
“ 4 And I saw, and, behold, there was a violent wind from the north, a mighty cloud and a blazing fire, and there was a shine about them, and in the middle of the fire it was like flashing copper. 5 And in the midst of it was something like four beings; they looked like people. 6 […] 10 Their faces were like a man in front and like a lion on the right side of all four and on the left side like a bull on all four and behind like an eagle on all four. "
was interpreted by the early Christian theologians as a prefiguration of corresponding beings in the Revelation of John .
The four living beings stand there around the throne of God:
“ And the first being was like a lion, and the second being was like a bull, and the third being had a human face, and the fourth being was like a flying eagle. "
A firm connection of the individual pictures with one evangelist each came about at the beginning of the fourth century. Jerome , the author of the Vulgate , justified the assignment of the symbols with appropriate passages from the Gospels, for Mark with one of the first sentences of the Gospel: “ It is a voice of a preacher in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his path level ! ”( Mk 1,3 LUT ), whereby“ a loud calling voice in the desert ”was enough for early Christian theologians to associate with the lion.
St. Mark's Lion in Venice
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The relics of St. Mark the Evangelist have been resting in Venice since 828 , after they were stolen by Venetian sailors in Alexandria and transferred to Venice - probably on the initiative of Doge Giustiniano Particiaco . Markus ousted the city saint Theodor and became the first city patron of Venice and the city - alongside Rome and Santiago de Compostela - one of the most visited Christian pilgrimage sites in Europe. From then on Venice was called the Serenissima Repubblica di San Marco , finally had the lion of St. Mark in its coat of arms and left it as a symbol of rulership in all cities of the former Maritime Republic (see Venetian colonies ). The doges were depicted on coins and reliefs kneeling as they received the banner from the hand of the saint himself.
The Lion of St. Mark in Venice is shown with an open book - in times of war sometimes with a closed book. You can read the words PAX TIBI MARCE EVANGELISTA MEUS (Peace be upon you, Mark, my evangelist). In connection with war flags or the Venetian fleet, the book is often replaced by a sword.
The lion of St. Mark - a winged lion with a book and raised paws - can be seen in countless places in Venice, in all cities of the former Venetian rulership, on the many history pictures and everywhere in the Doge's Palace.
Flags and coats of arms
The St. Mark's lion was the heraldic animal of the Maritime Republic of Venice, hence its war and merchant fleet. The Italian Navy still uses the Lion of St. Mark in its coat of arms and as a badge. The city of Venice and the province of Veneto also have the lion as heraldic animal. That makes him a mean figure . He is a lion with a proper name. Its appearance is closely related to the name.
Today's unofficial flag of the Greek Ionian Islands shows a lion of St. Mark.
Flag of the Serenissima
Flag of Veneto
Bowsprit flag of the Italian Navy
Republic of the Ionian Islands (1815–1864)
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Companies
The Generali Group or Assicurazioni Generali , founded in Trieste in 1831 and now the fifth largest insurance company in the world, uses the lion of St. Mark as a symbol. Numerous other companies in Venice and Veneto have also adopted the symbol.
In the main train station in Vienna there is a restored sandstone statue of St. Mark's lion that serves as a meeting point. Of the eight former ones from 1873, which adorned the roof of the former Südbahnhof and pointed to the southern railway line to Trieste, only one more has been preserved - in Laxenburg on Franz-Josef Platz. This lion looks to the right while the lion in the main train station looks to the left.
North American explorer
To mark the 500th anniversary of the discovery of North America by Giovanni Caboto (1497), a memorial plaque was set up at the port of Halifax .
literature
- Corinna Fritsch: The Lion of St. Mark as a religious, political and military symbol , Münster 1993.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ A St. Mark's banner (vexillum sancti Marci) first mentioned Godefroy de Villehardouin (The conquest of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204 by Gottfried von Villehardouin , Marshal of Champagne, based on the edition by P. Paris and edited by Franz Getz. Leipzig. 1915 p . 53). The oldest surviving lion depiction in Venice is dated to around 1200, namely in the depiction of the Apocalypse in the dome of St. Mark's Basilica next to the throne of God. The lion relief by Sant'Aponal dates from the 13th century (Fig. In Eva S. Rösch, Gerhard Rösch: Venice and the Empire. Tübingen 1982. p. 25). The illustration of a lion banner is first handed down from the 14th century (ibid. P. 66 fig. 13, see also p. 22-25). More on the representation of a lion in Venice: Corinna Fritsch: The St. Mark's Lion as a religious, political and military symbol, Münster 1993; WH Rudt de Collenberg: Il leone di San Marco. In Ateneo Vèneto 1989 pp. 57-84; BM Scarfi (ed.): The Lion of Venice. Munich 1991.
- ↑ s. Homepage: http://www.generali.com/
