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the
inferior floor is articulated in a series of orders of
columns, archs, reliefs and decorations that give to the
sight a pleasant game of light and shade effects. If we
place in front of the façade and starting from the left
side, it's possible to admire the arcades that tell the
events of the stealing of the body of the Evangelist: the
first one is the only one that keeps the ancient mosaic
(1260-1270), representing the Translation of the body of
S. Marco in the church; the second one represents the
Body of St. Mark revered by the Doge, mosaic of the
eighteenth century on sketch of Sebastiano Ricci, the
third arcade that is situated in the center of the
façade is decorated with bas-reliefs of the third
century: they constitute one of the sculptural cycles
more important than the Romanesque sculpture in Italy and
they narrate some episodes of the Months, of the Virtues
and of the Prophets. The intrados of the greater arc show
in form of bas-relief the Works. Just on the left in the
scene we can see a character with the crutches that the
tradition recognizes in the architect of St.Mark, in the
action of biting a finger of his hand since he had
boasted, when he had finished the basilica, to be able to
build another better of that one. The fourth and the
fifth arcade have a mosaic of the '600 that represents
the St. Mark's Body welcomed by the Venetians and the
stealing of St. Mark's body. Through the galleries we can
enter the terrace on which are put the copies of the four
gilded bronze horses that were sent to Venice from
Constantinople, by the Doge Enrico Dandolo in 1204: the
original ones are kept in St. Mark's Museum. In the
lunettes are inserted some mosaics of the ' 600, while
the aedicules, the statues and the cusps date back to the
Gothic. |
