Pala d'Oro at St Mark's Basilica: Art History in Focus Venice Palaces and Private Views

Wednesday was a full day on the Art History in Focus Palaces and Private Views tour of Venice and was capped by a private post-dinner tour of St. Mark's Basilica.

Having relatively unencumbered access to this famed religious site was a treat but viewing it under lights took the experience to another level. I walked, wide-eyed, through the structure as Luisella explained the history, architecture, and religious iconography associated with the building but the foregoing was no preparation for my first sighting of the Palo d'Oro.

I made a right-hand turn into the passageway just before the Altar and was brought to a stop by a large, segmented painting of Jesus and the Disciples.

After snapping a pic, I continued along only to run into a traffic jam as my fellow tour members had stopped to look at something to my left which I could not yet see. I pushed along to get a better view of the object and was stunned by a breathtakingly beautiful, bejeweled golden structure that appeared to reflect every photon of light present in the building. This was, Luisella explained, the Pala d'Oro. 

As described by byzantinelegacy.com, Pala d'Oro is basically an altar screen of gold studded with hundreds of gems. According to this source, Pala derives from the Latin palla (cloth). These cloths, sometimes decorated with images of saints, were used to cover the altar or embellish its background. Over time, these cloths were upgraded to gold or silver coverings.

This stunning Byzantine gold and enamel altarpiece is, according to stmarksbasilica.com, "universally considered to be the most precious and refined expression of Byzantine genius." It is the largest surviving assemblage of Byzantine cloisonné enamel in the world.

"The most expensive Byzantine art was not painting. A gold reliquary set with cloisonné enamel plates represented an investment of precious metal, imported stone and highly specialised labor that no panel or fresco could approach, and it was this work ... that western visitors described with the most open envy" (byzantineculture.com). 

Enameling is the fusing of powdered glass to metal using heat. The cloisonné technique, favored by the Byzantines, involved (byzantineculture.com): (i) outlining the design with thin gold strips that were soldered or placed on edge on a gold base; (ii) filling the cells thus created with powdered glass of different colors; (iii) firing(s); and (iv) grinding and polishing to finish. Full-ground meant that the entire surface of the plate was enameled (a process used up to around the 10th century). In sunk-ground, a recess is cut into a gold plate and only the figure is enameled. This was the method preferred during the middle Byzantine period.

The structure and iconography of the altarpiece is illustrated in the two charts below.

As indicated in the first of the two charts above, the current structure came together over a number of years. The bottom portion of the altarpiece was commissioned by Doge Faliere in 1102 and was delivered from Constantinople in 1105. It was enlarged with the top portion in 1209 using spoils from the Pantokrator Monastery taken during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. The altarpiece took its final shape during the course of 1342 -1345 when the Sienese goldsmith Giovanni Paolo Boninsegna was given the task of combining the elements within a gothic frame and distributing precious stones throughout the assemblage.

A total of 1300 stones are spread across the face of the altarpiece. This number was established in a 1796 census and subsequent counts bear it out. The stones are mostly uncut or simply polished in the medieval manner. The stones signified alignment with the jeweled walls of the heavenly Jerusalem.

Vermeer's Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

In the Vermeer painting Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, the latter sits at Christ’s feet while Martha stoops to offer him a loaf of bread in a wicker basket.

Johannes Vermeer, Christ in the House
of Martha and Mary, 1654 - 55 

The National Gallery of Scotland (its place of residence) describes this piece as one of the largest that Vermeer had created and the only known one covering a biblical topic. 

This painting shows an artist seeking a path. According to the National Gallery of Scotland (NGS), this picture "belongs to a small group of very early works which show the artist experimenting with various techniques and combining various influences in Dutch and Flemish art. ... The strong play of shadow and light, the characterization of the figures and broad handling of paint were probably inspired by the work of artists from Utrecht, who in turn were in turn inspired by Caravaggio's art" (The chart below shows my characterization of the path from Caravaggio to these "Utrecht Caravaggisti").

But it also provides flashes of the mastery that would become a hallmark of the painters mature offerings: "The lay of light on different surfaces such as the loaf of bread or the different fabrics is closely observed. The handling of the shape and color also has something of a distilled quality that we associate with the artist. Even the statesque figure of Martha, with her downcast eyes, seems like a precursor of the tranquil women who occupy Vermeer's later interiors, caught in suspended animation as they perform the simplest of domestic tasks."

The painting's size and topic suggests that it was created for a specific commission but its ownership is unclear prior to it surfacing in a private English collection as a Raphael. A cleaning in1901 revealed the Vermeer signature and its true authorship.

Graham-Dixon (Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found) sees the figure of Christ in this work as having been “lifted directly from The Death of St Joseph” by the Neapolitan Caravaggio follower Andrea Vaccaro. “The figures are nearly identical in physiognomy and pose, down to the exact position of their hands, the one difference being that Vaccaro’s Christ is standing and Vermeer's’s seated."

Andrea Vaccaro, The Death of St. Joseph, c. 1650 

Christ, according to Graham-Dixon, "addresses the stooping Martha in the manner of a mild and forbearing schoolmaster correcting a pupil who has made an innocent mistake." Further, by showing Martha with "lowered eyes and a solemn expression," the suggestion is that she understands the message that Jesus is conveying.

The NGS only suggests that this painting was made as a private commission but Graham-Dixon goes a little further by asserting that the buyer had to be someone who disagreed emphatically with the Calvinist position that faith alone is sufficient for the attainment of salvation. Martha is the meek and humble bearer of a gift, a loaf of bread, which immediately identifies her with the first of the seven Christian Acts of Mercy, feeding the hungry.

Graham-Dixon sees the painting as "turned more towards a female gaze" and, given its size, it may have been an altarpiece in a private, home-based chapel.

Vermeer's Diana and her Companions: After Andrew Graham-Dixon (Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found)

In Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found, Andrew Graham-Dixon divides Vermeer's oeuvre into (i) works created for the van Ruijven family and (ii) everything else. Within the Everything Else class, we encounter the painter's earliest works, those based on Bible stories, myths, or the lives of Saints. The earliest known of these is Diana and her Companions, painted, according to Graham-Dixon sometime around 1653.

Johannes Vermeer, Diana and her Companions, c. 1653

This was the same year that Vermeer registered himself (December 29, 1653) as a Master Painter with the Guild of St Lukes. Registering as a Master implied having spent the prescribed apprenticeship period with a qualified Master but there is no indication as to who played that role in Vermeer's life. In that he was not accorded the initiation-fee discount provided to apprentices who trained under Delft-based Masters, one has to assume that he trained under a "foreign" Master.

But let's get back to Diana and her Companions. The story is told by the Roman poet Ovid in his Metamorphoses. According to Graham-Dixon, "Diana was one of twelve gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus, a slim and athletic huntress who was venerated by the Greeks and Romans as the personification of chastity. ... Her nymphs were required to be as chaste as Diana herself. But one of these Callisto, was seduced and impregnated by Jupiter without Diana's knowledge, her pregnant state only being discovered when she refused to disrobe and bathe in the stream along with the others."

In the painting Diana and her companions are resting in a woodland glade post the hunt. The scene is illuminated by a light emanating from the top left, a Caravaggio-like chiaroscuoro. Graham-Dixon describes the modeling herein as "broad and soft" and the color palette as a "rich mix of red, blue, orange, russet and gold." This palette, according to the author, is more Italian than Dutch and indicates that the young Vermeer was a "sophisticated and well-read painter who had spent a lot of time looking at Italian art."

Vermeer, according to Graham-Dixon, shows the moment just after Diana calls her companions to rest after the exertions of a busy hunt. The scene includes a dog -- representing fidelity -- and a thistle -- "calling to mind the narrow and thorny path of Virtue chosen by Hercules at the crossroads' -- but the central figure is the goddess. 

While the central figure, Diana is not the focus. That role, according to the author, is reserved for the companion who is washing her feet, a ritual nowhere described in Ovid's work. "Washing the feet draws us away from Classical antiquity" and places us into the realm of religious themes such as Jesus washing the feet of the Disciples and Mary Magdalene washing Jesus' feet. Two details that are evocative are the brass basin and white linen cloth, items which appear again and again in Flemish altarpieces of the Crucifixion, Lamentation, and Descent from the Cross.

In this transformation from mythological painting to one with Christian overtones, Diana's leading attendant can be construed as Mary Magdalene. According to Graham-Dixon, the painting appears to be more about the attendant than either Diana or Callisto. "In her person is embodied not only the chastity and rigor prized in antiquity, but also the most tender form of Christian humility."

Graham-Dixon surmises that this painting might have been paying homage to a new bride by emphasizing her qualities of modesty and reserve. He discussed a few potential candidates but eventually ruled them out of consideration.

In search of Caravaggio's Entombment of Christ

Following Caravaggio's path requires, in some cases, doubling back to view paintings that fill in gaps in the trail. Such was the case for his Deposition (1602 - 04). I had made a number of trips to Rome to feast on that city's wealth of Caravaggio works but had not gotten to the Vatican Museums where that particular piece is housed. I took advantage of my daughter's first trip to Rome -- and her desire to see the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel -- to pay a visit to the Pinacoteca Vaticana and the work that the Vatican Museums has described as "one of Caravaggio's greatest masterpieces."

It was a very hot day in Rome so it was sweltering in the museum as we wended our way through the myriad art-laden rooms that preceded the Sistine Chapel; and the portable AC units that were sprinkled here and there were inadequate to the task at hand. After marveling at the ceiling for a brief period, we took off in search of the Pinacoteca and the Caravaggio piece.

I scanned the wealth of works in the Pinacoteca looking for the telltale tenebrism of Caravaggio but it was not until I got close to the end that I saw the familiar pose of the Entombment; but something was off. It appeared softer and greyer than I would have expected. And then it hit me. This was not a work by Caravaggio. I consulted the literature accompanying the piece; and everything became clearer. The Caravaggio painting was, disappointingly, out for restoration and its place had been taken by a Gobelins Manufactory tapestry created in 1852 - 55 and based on the Master's painting. A picture of that tapestry is shown below.

Gobelins Manufactory, The Entombment
of Christ, 1852 - 55. After the painting
by Michelangelo Merisi known as
Caravaggio

I was forced to visit the Vatican Museums website to view a picture of the Caravaggio piece. According to the museum, the Entombment (also called Deposition) was commissioned by Girolamo Vittrice for his family chapel in the church of Santa Maria in Vallicella. This painting had been among the works transferred to Paris in 1787 as a result of the Treaty of Tolentino but had been returned to Rome after Napoleon's fall. In Rome it was housed in Pope Pius VIIs Pinacoteca.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,
The Entombment of Christ, c. 1602 - 04
(Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome)

This work was created during a period which I have named Caravaggio: Riding the Wave. Caravaggio's work in the Contarelli Chapel received widespread acclaim and lifted him up on a wave that he rode with gusto until he came crashing back to earth in 1606. 

The first evidence of Caravaggio's newfound fame was a commission from Monsignor Tibero Cesari -- Treasurer-General to Pope Clement VIII -- to provide two paintings for the side panels of the Cesari Chapel of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Popolo. Cesari had recently bought the patronage rights to the chapel and commissioned Carracci and Caravaggio to provide the necessary artwork. Caravaggio's two paintings were supposed to commemorate Saints Peter and Paul but his first two submittals (Crucifixion of Saint Peter, c. 1600 - 1601 and Conversion of Saul, c. 1600 - 01) were not accepted. It is thought that Caravaggio painted the pieces prior to getting accurate measurements and the finished paintings did not fit the space. 

These two paintings were subsequently bought by the Catholic Cardinal Giacomo Sennesia with the surviving one -- Conversion of Saul -- now resident in the Nicoletta Odescalchi Collection and shown at Caravaggio 2025. The two rejected paintings were replaced with Conversion on the Way to Damascus, 1601 and Crucifixion of St Peter, 1601. Both of these paintings were accepted and are present in the named chapel to this day.

Riding the wave, Caravaggio had, subsequent to those two paintings, and prior to the Entombment,  produced The Supper at Emmaus (1601); The Taking of Christ (1602), The Crowning of Thorns (1603); and St John the Baptist in the Wilderness (1602 - 1604).

The Entombment shows Jesus about to be laid on the Anointing Stone (stone that will seal the tomb) by John and Nicodemus while the Virgin Mother, Mary Magdalene, and Mary of Cleophus (with arms upraised) bear witness. The painting is characterized by the artists trademark tenebrism with the light illuminating the stark reality of the scene: a stone seemingly about to exit the picture frame; musculature; veins; defined rib cage; the dead weight of Jesus' body; John's fingers intruding into the wound in Jesus' side; the naturalness of the fall of his lifeless arm; the seeming extended middle finger; the everydayness of the face looking towards the viewer; the sorrow etched on the faces of the Virgin and Mary Magdalene; and the unshod feet of the bearer.

The major design construct is an upward right diagonal beginning at the point of Jesus' head.

So I still have not seen this piece in person but will keep my ears open for when it does return from the conservation effort.

Understanding the initial ownership paths of Vermeer's body of work: After Andrew Graham-Dixon

Andrew Graham-Dixon, acclaimed Caravaggio biographer, has recently published a book titled Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found and, while I am still in its early stages, I found some enlightening revelations. I report on these early findings in this post.

Graham-Dixon's research has shown that a significant portion of Vermeer's work was done for one family; and ownership of those works stayed within the family until the death of the last member and a subsequent auction.

Six years after Vermeer's death, a married woman named Magdalene Peters van Ruijven also died. She was 27 years old at the time of her death and had only been married for 2 years to her surviving spouse Jacob Dissus. Magdalene had been the daughter of a heir (her father) to a brewing fortune and a mother who hailed from a wealthy Delft family. Both of her parents preceded her in death and she had inherited their possessions, a part of which was a collection of paintings.

Magdalene's will bequeathed her assets to her spouse and the Delft city records still show the enumeration of those assets. According to the Recorder, a total of 20 Vermeer paintings were passed from Magdalene to her husband; 2/3 of Vermeer's known production. According to Graham-Clark, this list had been discovered and published by John Michael Montias 30 years ago.

Following Magdalene's death, Jacob, for one reason or another, was obligated to share her estate with his father; inclusive of six Vermeers. It is not clear under what circumstances Dissus regained, or retained, ownership of those paintings but all 20 were found in his print shop upon his death in 1695. His paintings were sold at auction in Amsterdam subsequent to his death.

The Delft recorder had not assigned names to any of the paintings but the Amsterdam auctioneer did (as shown below). Two of the paintings are unknown and are presumed lost.

Graham-Dixon sees this collection as unique in a number of ways. First, it was built around the works of a single painter. Vermeer had begun working for the Van Ruijven's about 1657 -- while he was in his mid-20s -- and, for the next 13 years, painted almost exclusively for them. At the end of this period he more or less gave up painting. Graham-Dixon noted that this was unusual in the "annals of patron-artist relationships."

The collection was fuirther unique in the way that the family cherished and preserved the holdings. Graham-Dixon asserts that Vermeer's lack of visibility in the art world was due to this fact. He had done most of his work for them and they held it tightly to their collective chests.

One of the paintings included in the auction was unnamed, but due to the description, Graham-Dixon contends that it "can be plausibly identified as The Art of Painting." If that is the case, it would have been purchased subsequent to Vermeer's death as he had retained control of it during his lifetime and, further, it was inherited by his widow post his death. It had been sold by the Administrator against her will. If bought by the van Ruijvens, it would have been the daughter, or the Mom, making the purchase as the Dad had died by this time. To round out the possibilities, the painting described in the listing could have been a second version of The Art of Painting (now lost) or could have been a different painting altogether (also lost).

A total of 20 Vermeers had been recorded at the time of Magdalene's death yet 21 of his works were offered at the auction. Graham-Dixon offers two alternatives: (i) Dissus bought another Vermeer between 1683 and 1695 or (ii) the Recorder failed to identify one of the other paintings in the inherited assets as a Vermeer.

The third unique bit about this collection was that it (i) amounted to 2/3 of Vermeer's total production and (ii) contained almsot all of the paintings on which his modern reputation has been built. The figure below captures the Vermeer works that were not included in the auction and categorizes them according to Graham-Dixon's characterization.

According to Graham-Dixon, the two genre paintings, on the basis of the same coat of arms appearing in a stained-glass window in each of them, seem to have been commissioned by the same family. He added The Love Letter to the genre category because it "follows the convention of Dutch genre painting in a straightforward way." It is not known who purchased this piece originally.

The Astronomer and The Greographer were commissioned by a director of the Dutch East India Company. Allegory of the Catholic Faith was commissioned by an Amsterdam Burgher.

As shown in the figure above, seven Vermeer-typical paintings were created for non-Ruijven patron(s). With the exception of Young Woman with a Water Pitcher, it is unclear who commissioned these paintings.

To Graham-Dixon it is clear that "with few exceptions, Vermeer created his most distinctive and memorable pictures for the Ruijven family."

In the Footsteps of Piero della Francesca: The Milan sequel -- Madonna and Child with Saints, Angels and Federico da Montefeltro (1469 - 70)

"... the painting ... is sublime. Serene, sculptural, luminous, muted in color and masterly in its creation of an illusionistic space, the altarpiece crystallizes the extraordinary talents of its creator, Piero della Francesca." Thus does Judith Dobrzynski (Masterpiece: Underwriting and Outstanding Altar, The Wall Street Journal, 3/5/22) describe the work Madonna and Child with Saints, Angels and Federico da Montefeltro. The painting, housed in Milan's Pinocoteca di Brera, is also known by the names The Montefeltro Altarpiece, The San Bernardino Altarpiece, and The Brera Altarpiece. Karen and I had the honor of viewing it in situ on September 1 of this year. 

Piero della Francesca, Madonna and
Child with Saints, Angels and
Federico da Montefeltro, 1469 - 1470

The Patron

The painting was ordered by Federico da Montefeltro to honor either his late wife (died 1472) or their newly born son. Federico had also been considering his mortality and had chosen the church of San Bernardino as the site of his mausoleum. The painting was intended to be installed therein. 

Who was Federico? Also known as Federico III da Montefeltro KG, he “was one of the most successful mercenary captains of the Italian Renaissance” and lord of Urbino from 1444 until his death in 1482. 

According to blog.der-leiermann.com:

Few names embody the paradox of the Italian Renaissance as fully as that of Federico da Montefeltro. He was a condottiere, a man of war who spent his life on the battlefield and whose power rested on military discipline. Yet at the same time he was one of the greatest patrons of his age, a humanist who supported philosophy and science, who gathered artists and architects around him and transformed Urbino into a radiant island of culture.

According to the Uffizi, Piero was a frequent guest at Federico's court, "finding himself in a cultured and refined atmosphere which would soon become one of the most important cultural and artistic hearts of Italy."

So Federico had the cultural pedigree and financial resources to solicit the creation of a masterpiece from the artist and Piero's appreciation for the court augured well for timely and successful completion of the effort.

The Painting

Style

All sources characterize this painting as a "sacred conversation" a genre which, according to Dobrzynski, originated in the first half of the 15th century and "replaced the traditional triptych and polypytch altarpieces." The sacred conversation pieces generally included Mary and Jesus flanked by saints and, in some cases, donors "in a single architectural space." The scene for these conversations were frequently the church apse.

Construct

The construct of the paintings and its interpretations are presented in the following annotated diagram. The annotations are drawn mostly from the Dobrzynski article.

Disposition

According to breraplus.org, the altarpiece came from the Church of San Bernardino in Urbino to Brera after the Napoleonic absolutions. Subsequent restorations and studies have revealed that the current instance of the painting has been reduced in size from its initial implementation

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In late-November 2025 I toured the cities wherein Piero della Francesca did most of his work and where many of his existing works are still displayed. I have previously written about the precipitating factors -- as regards the trip -- as well as  early experiences and will continue to flesh out the entirety of the trip over time. I have also previously described post-trip Piero experiences in Massachusetts and the foregoing falls into that latter category.

Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Norton Museum of Art's RAW: In Retrospect exhibition.

Over the last few days I have been exploring Norton Museum of Art's Recognition of Women in Art: In Retrospect exhibition and the included works of Jenny Saville and Marío Berrío included therein. Today I turn to the works of Njideka Akunyili Crosby.

Njideka, according to one source, "burst onto the art scene in 2010 with her large-scale mixed media works that mix figurative painting, drawing, printmaking, photography and collage. Her layered compositions of interiors combine her LA surroundings with images from her birth country Nigeria and recall the complexity of contemporary experience."

The Crosby works on show at the In Retrospect exhibition were Rebranding My Love (2011), The Beautyfull Ones, Series #1b (2014), and Super Blue Omo (2016).

Rebranding My Love was the earliest of the three paintings on display and shows a male lying diagonally across a bed with a black female perched partially on his back. The outline of the male's body is painted in white while the upper portion of the arm and back is decorated with a variety of images. The visible parts of the female's body are, likewise ,decorated with images. The bed is covered with a paneled coverlet, each panel inlaid with an image. The coverlet has a dominant yellow coloring furthest away from the viewer and striking blues and browns closer in. There are prominent parts in the female's hair. The background is a jarring orange with varying gradations of intensity as you move from right to left.

The artist's husband is white and I see her saying here that she can provide a foundation of her culture for him to lay on, and she can wrap him in her cultural norms and practices, but there will always be a part of him that will remain "untouched." 

Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Re-branding My Love, 2011

The Beautyfull Ones portray Nigerian youths, some of whom are Crosby's own family members. Series #1b is a portrait of her sister at about 10 years of age, "filtered through Diego Velázquez's portrait of Prince Baltasar Carlos."  I have included a copy of the Prince's portrait for comparison purposes.

Njideka Akunyili Crosby, 
The Beautyfull Ones, Series #1b, 2014

Diego Velazquez, Prince Baltasar Carlos

When compared, the opulence of the Prince's regalia is replaced by a patchwork of photographs. The Crosby work includes an "intricate layering of xerox transfer, paint, pastel and colored pencil, creating a matrix of interlocking planes" (christies.com).

The artist talks about "flipping the script" of the Prince's painting. The color scheme in the Prince's portrait is dark with lighter grey tones along the arms. The color scheme in her sister's portrait is reversed. The darkness comes with the arms while the attire is grey-white.

Artchive describes Super Blue Omo as a genre painting associated with the Postcolonial art movement. "The composition is rich with layers, not only in its physical appearance but also in its cultural and historical implications, inviting a deep and reflective engagement from its audience."

Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Super Blue Omo, 2016

The title of the painting supposedly hearkens back to a detergent that was widely advertised and sold in the artist's homeland during her childhood. The image on the TV is in some way related.

A light blue color permeates the artwork and is contrasted by the deep blue square on the back wall. As is Crosby's practice, the painting is suffused with images from a variety of sources emplaced on almost every available surface.

The TV is angled to allow viewing from the sofa but the subject is herself angled away from the TV and staring into the distance. The tea/coffee setting is for two but there is only one person present. The angle of the table to the sofa is suggestive of someone pushing that table back in order to leave the scene and the subject could be looking at whatever that person is doing.

A very well-aligned piece.