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 Pantocrator 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.

The two sections of the Pala d'Oro were hinged such that the upper portion could be folded over the lower through pulleys connected to two columns at the rear of the assemblage. The final restoration to the structure dates back to 1836 - 47 when the upper section was firmly joined to the lower. This work was carried out  by the goldsmiths Lorenzo and Pietro Fauro.

The altarpiece had faced the nave until 1958 when a special lifting-and-rotating mechanism was installed. This system allowed the altarpiece to face the nave on the special days and then be turned to the rear where it could be comfortably admired at other times (basilicasanmarco.it).