The Narthex-Mosaics of San Marco in Venice

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Overview

One of the most complete of the preserved image programs of the Middle Ages, at the same time abstract and full of touching details. The creation story, which begins with the big bang, has perhaps not been recorded more precisely anywhere. Also ingenious is the mosaic of the Alypius portal, in which the transfer of the bones of St. Mark to the building in front of which the viewer stands is depicted. A wonderful archive of the development of European art between 1100 and 1290, in which the Romanesque image is increasingly supplemented by vivid backgrounds and in the “Dream of Moses” a whole landscape is already presented under a romantically lying crescent moon. In addition, you can see in the circular compositions of the domes (with partly already framed picture fields) not only an early form of cinema that reminds of the movement experiments by Marey and Muybridge, but also the prototypes of our DVDs today, a round disc with image storage in mosaic -Pixels. - K. Wyborny