English: Saint Mark the Evangelist.
Español: San Marcos.
Artist: Jusepe Leonardo (1601–1653).
Date: Circa 1630.
Current location: Bowes Museum,
Barnard Castle, England.
This File: 7 June 2010.
User: Enrique Cordero
(Wikimedia Commons)
Saint Mark The Evangelist.
Illustration: UNA VOCE OF ORANGE COUNTY
Artist: René de Cramer.
“Copyright Brunelmar/Ghent/Belgium”.
Used with Permission.
Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.
Saint Mark the Evangelist.
Feast Day 25 April.
Double of The Second-Class.
Red Vestments.
unless otherwise stated.
Saint Mark the Evangelist.
Feast Day 25 April.
Double of The Second-Class.
Red Vestments.
He was one of the seventy-two Disciples (Gospel). He went to Egypt, where he was the first to announce Christ at Alexandria. The Preaching of the Gospel, which his Martyrdom confirmed, made him to enter into Glory (Secret), where Saint John shows him to us as one of the four symbolical animals who attend the Triumph of the Immolated Lamb.
Statue of Saint Mark the Evangelist (Copy).
Artist: Donatello
Location: Orsanmichele, Florence, Italy.
This File: 22 August 2005.
User: Cnelson~commonswiki
(Wikimedia Commons)
His body was taken to Venice, whose Patron he is since the 9th-Century A.D. Rome possesses a Church Dedicated to Saint Mark, where a Station is held on the Monday of the Third Week in Lent.
Let us profit by the teaching of Saint Mark, who wrote the Gospel of Christ and Preached it, and let us have recourse to his Prayers (Collect).
Mass: Protexisti.
Commemoration: Of the Rogations, should the Rogation Mass not be Celebrated.
Credo: Is said.
Preface: Of The Apostles.
English: Venetian merchants,
with the help of two Greek Monks,
take Mark the Evangelist’s body to Venice
Deutsch: Bergung des Leichnams
des Hl. Markus (vor der Restaurierung).
Artist: Tintoretto
Date: 1562-1566.
Current location: Accademia of Venice, Italy.
Source/Photographer: The Yorck Project:
10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei.
DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202
Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.
(Wikimedia Commons)
As usual with Zephyrinus’ wonderfully informative Catholic blog, this reader was intrigued by the Tintoretto painting shown above variously titled, “Saint Mark's Body Brought to Venice,” “The Abduction of the Body of Saint Mark” or “Translation of the Body of Saint Mark.” (Traslazione del corpo di San Marco).
ReplyDeleteIt was one of several paintings as a Venetian display on the subject of St. Mark by Tintoretto during the year 1562-1566. It is presently displayed in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice.
Ancient Christian tradition states that S. Mark traveled to Alexandria after Pentecost and became patriarch of that city where he was later martyred in the Neronian persecution ca. 68 A.D. His tomb became a place of veneration and in time a church was built over it after ca. 313 A.D. (Part 1 of 2, Note by Dante P)
(Part 2 of 2:)
ReplyDeleteAccording to pious tradition, two Venetian merchants visiting Alexandria, Buono da Malamocco and Rustico da Torcello, in the year 828 AD, during the course of their mercantile travels came to visit the tomb of S. Mark at the Coptic Church there. A Greek Orthodox priest and a monk at the church informed them that the Muslim caliph was planning to destroy the church and desecrate the tomb. So the two merchants with their two Greek accomplices according to the legend spirited the body at night out of the city to their trading ship.
Art historians note the unusual “tenseness” of the Tintoretto composition:
Tintoretto displays the scene as the two merchants arrive in Venice under a heavy ominous atmosphere: gray rolling clouds in the background are illuminated by a thunderbolt. The sky is red. The figures of the two merchants and the horse are darker, and the fleeing frightened Venetians in the background are pale and almost transparent, like ghosts. And, a bearded Tintoretto appears in the picture on the right side, as though holding the horse.
For a time, from 828-829 AD on, the body of the Evangelist was reserved in a chapel of the palace of the Doge of Venice, as the great Basilica of S. Marco was not yet fully completed and expanded to its present vast size. This undertaking being completed in 1063-1064 AD, the saint’s relics were placed in a crypt beneath the central crossing of the church. But in 1835 the body was exhumed by the then-patriarch of Venice and placed under the basilica high altar, where it lies today.
So, thanks to Zephyrinus’ excellent inspiring blog, that is some of the background to the Tintoretto painting, and the historic “Translation of the Body of S. Mark.” -Note by Dante P
A wonderful, in-depth, addition to the Article on Saint Mark.
DeleteDante P gives all readers a deep perspective of this particular Tintoretto painting, for which we are most grateful.
Thank you, Dante P.