The Republic at Work: San Marco’s Reliefs of the Venetian Trades

This article, while focusing on sculptural relief imagery on the façade of San Marco, especially representations of the Labors of the Months, does mention a few mosaics prominently displayed in the arches of portals on the cathedral’s façade. One mosaic, found in the Porta San Alipio, depicts the transfer of Saint Mark’s body to the basilica.It shows the uppermost arch above the church’s main entrance (Portale Maggiore), which rises to the attic level where the four bronze horses brought to Venice from Constantinople were positioned. The same mosaic also demonstrates that gilded sculptural relief was already in place above the Portale Maggiore at the time of the mosaic’s creation (ca. 1213-50). Another mosaic, now lost but reproduced in a painting by Gentile Bellini (1496), depicted the resurrected Christ on Mt. Zion between two trumpeting angels, an event preceding the Second Coming. The latter mosaic was replaced in the 16th century by a less distinguished mosaic illustrating the Resurrection itself.