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The Golden Legend tells us that Mark was sent by St. Peter to preach in
Aquileia
in Northern Italy. It is at this point that Venetian legend takes
over.
On his return to Rome he stopped off at
the Venetian lagoon for a snooze. Here, an angel appeared to him in a
dream and said:
Pax tibi Marce evangelista meus. Hic requiescat corpus
tuum. (Peace be with you, Mark my evangelist. Here your body
will find its final rest.) In another version of the story, he was driven
ashore in a storm; in this version the angel added the remark
that 'the city that shall rise on these lagoons will call you its
protector.' An early image of this can be found amongst the mosaics at San
Marco, Venice.
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One might think that Mark would not have been particularly
impressed with the idea; in the first century the Venetian lagoon was
nothing more than a muddy, malarial swamp. The busy boatyard scene in the
background of the painting by Domenico Robusti (Tintoretto's son) is pure
fantasy.
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Domenico Robusti
Accademia, Venice
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I hesitate to upset the Venetians, nice people all of
them, but one can't help but believe that the story itself is all fantasy, and
politically motivated fantasy at that. The first sentence of the Latin
quote was lifted from the supposed words of Christ to St Mark when Mark
was languishing in prison in Alexandria. The whole story was probably concocted in the
thirteenth century, to justify the events of 828.
But never mind all that scepticism - I'm sure the Venetians will
stick to their guns. They will even tell you exactly where the dream took
place - near the church of San Francesco della Vigna in Castello.
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Canaletto: Campo of the Church
of San Francesco della Vigna
Private collection
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