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 Scarcely dressed women, shorts, uncovered shoulders, keep away! The guard posted at the entrance at the atrium will explain that to you very friendly or have you ejected manu militari if you're one of these wise guys (or women). Be prepared. It's more than normal. We should show respect in every place of worship.
The mosaics in the atrium represent scenes from Old Testament and are the oldest and most beautiful in the Basilica. Follow them from right to left, starting with the "Genesis cupola", where the creation of the world is shown 24 episodes in concentric circles. The first arched vault, about Noah and the Greta Flood is followed in the second vault by scenes where he drinks wine in his vineyard, where his son Cham shows Noah's nudity to his brothers and where Noah is buried. Maria, the Apostles and saints, bat both sides of the entrance are the oldest figures in the Basilica and date from the 11th century. The white lozenge, encrusted in a red pavement shows the location where the emperor Frederic Barbarossa kneeled in front of pope Alexander III in 1177. The staircase you will notice leads to the MUSEO MARCIANO, where the originals of the four gilded bronze horses of San Marco are displayed.
Advancing in the Basilica, the interior seems enormous at first glance, dark and intimidating but when you eyes get used the Basilica becomes exotic and even intimate. And what a stunning and stupefying wealth of mosaics!! Did it ever occur to you that the luminosity inside the Basilica can terribly vary, depending on the time of the year or even from day to day. The day-to-day thing I witnessed, the season's change I heard about J. When it is dark, the mosaics offer sometimes cascades of gold and colours. During the week, the interior is lit between 11.30 and 12.30, all Saturday afternoon and the entire Sunday. Every square inch of the walls, pillars, columns, whatever, (24,000 square meters), is covered with these mosaics, laid on gold leaves. Take the stairs to a small gangway along the wall to admire the ensemble and see them from close range. Normally you should be able to buy a leaflet at the entrance describing each of them.
The Basilica possesses also certain of the most precious marbles in the world. To go to the choir coming from the central nave, you pass in front of a magnificent iconostase, carved in pink marble from Verona and decorated by simple geometric forms sculpted in other marble colours.
But who did all the work? At first, the Venetians lured the mosaic sculptors to Venice but soon they learned the skill by themselves and they introduced Western influences to the Eastern patterns. Magnificent examples are the "Pentecost cupola"(first cupola along the nave) and "Christ's Ascension" in
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Bibliography
The Basilica of St. Mark in Venice, by G. Musolino, (1956), The Mosaics of San Marco in Venice by O.Demus (1988), Observations of Venice, by Thomas Coryat, A thousand Years of Culture and Civilisation, by Peter Lauritzen-Heures Italiennes, by Henry James (La difference 1985)-
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