SAVING ST MARK’S

Hokitika Guardian, 20 July 1929, Page 7

SAVING ST MARK’S

THE VEMIL OF VENICE.

WONDERFUL \{ ESTORATIOX ' Work. “THRILLING STORY OF A 0 VENTURE.” Tlio famous Cathedral of St. Mark Venice, one of the iircliiieitur.il wondors of.tlio world, lias boon in grave danger, ominous cracks having appeared in the* north-west section of the great Basilica. Thanks to prompt action by Signor Mussolini and the* jltalian Government, the menace is now being checkmated, Signor Marangoni, chief architect to the great building, having initiated a. system of repair iby which the famous mosaics and paintings which adorn the walls will be saved from the destruction which threatened them. Some idea of tlio delicate nature of the work will be gathered when it is stated that many square yards of priceless mural paintings are being held up from .lie front iby large pads of felt until the masonry and nibble*, which supported them are taken out and replaced. St. Mark’s has always needed care, owing to the material employed in its construction not having been always

of the best, and some of it having been, hastily put together. Amongst the earliest restorations the most important were those undertaken between 1527 and 1570 by Jacopo Sansovino. All through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Procuration employed architects to study the safety of the building. It was in the nineteenth century, however, that the work of restoration was more fully developed, not in a very satisfactory manner at first, but, after 1880, with scrupulous care for the artistic value of the Basilica. Alter the fall of the campanile the building was oven more carefully examined. Ever since its present architect, Luigi Maragoni, has looked after it, the church Ims become a model of what careful restoration can accomplish. RELAYING THE .•FOUNT)ATIOXS. One of the most important works undertaken by him was on the northwest corner, where the foundations of the whole corner and of the column that supports the small and ancient slirine had to be relaid. It was only after this had been strengthened tlmt lie was able to turn his attention to the cracks on the two vaults between the principal door and the first cupola. “To hear the architect describe the work that was done here is like listening to a thrilling stm\ of adventure,” writes an eye-witness

“It certainly need eel, and needs, courage to face the enormous difficulties of restoring a building of such incomparable beauty. When we lmd climbed the stairs to the upper gallery lapointed out the mosaics, which, when he had discovered the state of the walls, could not be touched, as •he blending of colour, unlike that in tin* older mosaics, was often added in paint. To save these, Signor Marangoni tlied something altogether new in Lin* work of restoration. .[!<■ placed felt over the mosaics, anheld them lip by specially designee supports, whilst at the back, workmen carefully scraped away rubble, in replace it with cement ami stone. This work is finished except for tin last two metres, the most important of all, as these support part of tin weight of the first cupola.

“We climbed up higher, through maze of scaffolding, to see the crude in the arch above, the discovery ol which has lately caused a certain amount of anxiety to the architect. But before tlio work can be finished at this point tlio Commission for the Safety of the 'Basilica considers n most necessary to examine the stability of the two other arches that help to support the first cupola. This will be indeed a difficult and expensive* task, for tlio mosaics, designed by pupil of Tinoretto, will have to lie moved. A part is already taken away, and it was here that a workman who is an expert in mosaics showed us how every tiny stone is numbered, and then casts arc taken on soft wads of paper. Signor Marangoni then led us up through a forest of planks and ladders to the top of the cupola, where, through chinks, we saw the world below, and looking up, quite close, in early mosaics, the Apostles, enormous nncf brilliant in colour,” SANSOVINO’S MASTERPIECE. The piazza of St. Mark was ieerected between the years 1517 and 1538, as the residence of thp nine procurators from whom the Doge of Venice was usually elected. For the increasing number of procurators was built the Procuratie Nuove, on the south side of the piazza. Of this the library hall is a masterpiece of Sansovino, its ceiling have been decorated by tlio seven best Venetian artists of the time, while Titian, Pan 1 Veronese, Bassano and Tintoretto contributed splendid work to othei parts of the interior. The li is torn and characteristic* campanile, 323 feel in height, is said to have been begun in the eighth century, and the half •> was completed in 1512. It collapsed in July 1902, hut was rebuilt between 1903 and 1912 on the sound old fo'.m elation. The clock-tower gives entrance to the Mcrceria, -or main business quarter, threaded by streets converging

towards the Rialto, the famous bridge over tile Grand Canal, in front of St. Mark’s itself rise three rod flagstaffs, surmounted by winged lions. From these once floated the silk and gold 'banners typifying Caiidia, Cyprus and the Morea, and three possessions of the republic. ’They are now replaced on festal days by the flag of Italy. The Basilica of St. Mark is placed by Canova above the Cathedrals of Pisa and Siena, as, on the whole, the first of the* three finest churches in Hnly. No verbid description mm do •justice /to the interest surrounding this wonderful edice, of which the external mosaics, the famous bronze horses, the wonderful interior, ennobled hv the mosaics already referred to, the choir, the sacristy, the north transept, the baptistery, the treasury and the pavement Have all their special students and art votaries, whose admiration a life-long succession of visits sems only to deepen and refine.