Vittore Carpaccio Ep1: Lion of St. Mark

We kick off Season 7’s spotlight on Renaissance artist Vittore Carpaccio with his majestic, “Lion of St. Mark.” This enormous painting announces Venice’s return to power after a run-in with the League of Cambrai. 

We’ll find out how a winged lion became the symbol of Venice, what happens when a couple of tourists get carried away, and how a pope changing his mind led to Venice’s resurgence. 

SHOW NOTES (TRANSCRIPT BELOW)

“Vittore Carpaccio: Master Storyteller of Renaissance Venice” is on view Nov. 20, 2022–Feb. 12, 2023. Find out more at https://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2022/carpaccio-renaissance-venice.html

“A Long Look” theme is “Ascension” by Ron Gelinas https://youtu.be/jGEdNSNkZoo

Episode theme is “Goudimel Hodie nobis caelorum rex” composed by Claude Goudimel. Performed by Michel Rondeau. 

Courtesy of musopen.org https://musopen.org/music/43315-hodie-nobis-caelorum-rex/

Artwork information 

Vittore Carpaccio: Master Storyteller of Renaissance Venice by Peter Humphrey et al. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022. 

https://www.italyouritaly.com/blog/2021/1/21/the-lion-of-san-marco

https://www.britannica.com/topic/League-of-Cambrai

Venice: Pure City by Peter Ackroyd ©2009, Anchor Books. 

Post comments or questions at alonglookpodcast.com

TRANSCRIPT

Hello and welcome to A Long Look! I’m your host, Karen Jackson

Did you know most people spend only a few seconds looking at works of art? But what happens if you slow down and take a long look? 

This season we’ll find out by looking at the works of Vittore Carpaccio, the star of a fantastic exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC called Vittore Carpaccio: Master Storyteller of Renaissance Venice.

MUSIC

Today I’m looking at his majestic painting, Lion of  St. Mark. 

If you want to follow along, you can find it at alonglookpodcast.com/lion. 

So what do you first notice?

A tawny-brown lion with long wings stands looking at us in this long, narrow oil painting. It’s really big, about 4 feet high by 12 feet long and it’s hung high on the wall so we look up at it. He’s in front of a line of peach-colored buildings and two ships with billowing creamy white sails spread along the edge of a body of steel-blue water. A pale blue sky filled with puffy clouds rises behind the buildings and ships and becomes a darker, sapphire blue at the top. 

We see the lion from the side with his front paws on land to our left and his back paws stepping forward on the water that fills the space between him and the buildings and ships in the distance. He’s turned his face to look at us and there’s a dark gold halo behind his head. He has tiny, pointed ears, small brown eyes, a wide nose, and an open mouth, that weirdly enough, seems to have human teeth! 

He’s kinda skinny with a fringe of hair hanging along his belly but he has a long, luxurious mane that falls in waves down his neck and chest. His rust-orange wings stand up from his shoulders and become a dark caramel brown toward the ends, with some blue feathers tucked in. The wings taper to a point and extend way past his rump to hover over his curving tail and the ships floating on the right side. 

He holds up an open book with one of his front paws to show us Latin text that reads, “Pax Tibi Marce, (mar-kay) Evangelista Meus.” We’ll get into that a little later. There’s some scrubby brown growth along the bottom edge of the tan-colored ground and a rocky hill rises from it up the left side. It’s dotted with a rose bush and tall bushy olive green and brown trees growing off the top left corner. 

The buildings in the background start on the left where a pointed tower beyond the trees climbs into the blue sky and the rest of the buildings stretch out to the right. Most have spires or dark gray domes, some of which peek over a long two-story building facing us. It has a line of pointed arches along its ground floor. Several wooden boats are anchored in front of it and there’s something that looks like a tall, dark brown platform next to them draped in burgundy and blue with dark red flags in the corners snapping in the wind. 

Those ships on the right sail towards us between buildings and towers that jut into the water from the right edge and a castle-looking building that sits by itself, like it’s on an island. 

After looking for several minutes, I realized there are five shield shapes spanning the bottom edge of the scene. They’re a little hard to see because they layered over the bottom growth and water but they look like family coats of arms. For example, the one in the lower left corner is dark green outlined in rust red with a red band across the center. 

MUSIC

So, why a lion? 

The winged lion has been a symbol of Venice since the late 1200s and a stone statue of it sits at the top of one of two tall columns in the famous Piazzetta just off the Piazza San Marco, also known as St. Mark’s Square.

Here’s a little background. Venice had been a major trading center between east and west for ages and a military powerhouse. And it wasn’t just a city, it was a Republic with territory across northern Italy. But, as usual, all this power made the neighbors cranky, including the Pope. So  he got the French, the Germans, and the Spanish, to combine forces with him as the League of Cambrai to take back some of these lands. And they actually managed to grab back a lot of it. But when C painted this in 1516, Venice was reasserting its power because it had successfully won back almost of all the territory and had even negotiated for more. The lion makes that point by straddling land and sea to remind viewers that Venice controlled territory as far west as Milan and as far east as Cyprus. Oh, and btw, the league broke up after only 2 years when the pope decided to switch sides. He made friends with Venice and even convinced the Spanish king to join him in the new and improved Holy League! 

Anyway, back to the lion. The Latin in the book he holds up says “Peace to you, Mark my Evangelist.” The story there says that St. Mark was traveling in the area centuries before and had a vision where angels told him that Venice would be his final resting place. Which it is, after a kind of convoluted journey. Way back in 828, two Venetian businessmen went to Alexandria Egypt where Mark was buried. Mark had founded the Church of Alexandria but ended up being martyred by some of the locals and these guys decided to steal his body and bring him back to Venice. He was buried in the Basilica San Marco, built in his honor and became the city’s patron saint. The winged lion is a symbol of St. Mark and so became a symbol of Venice. It’s been used like a logo, appearing on all sorts of paintings, flags, carvings, and other materials.

The view behind the lion shows many of the important landmarks of the city. On the left, that tall tower is the Campanile and that long building facing the water is the Doge’s Palace. The doge was the ruler of Venice and this was his seat of government. Those domes peeking over it belong to St. Mark’s Basilica. On the right, the buildings include the customs house where taxes were paid for cargo going in and out of the port and the Monastery San Giorgio Maggiore. This view is not a completely accurate representation of the Venetian skyline but was meant to emphasize these main institutions. And those ships are cargo ships, just another reminder that Venice was open for business. Turns out that dark brown platform actually is another larger ship called a galley. 

BTW, those shields along the bottom actually are the coats of arms of five wealthy men who were in charge taxing imports and exports of wine. And they commissioned this painting from Carpaccio to hang in their offices but the Lion now makes his home at the Palazzo Ducale. 

OUTRO:

I hope you’ll try out a long look on your next museum visit! Just take a little time and let the art reveal itself.

And btw, if you’re into Italian politics, business, or culture, check out my friends at the US-Italy Global Affairs Forum. The forum is dedicated to promoting dialogue and coverage of issues that affect the United States-Italy relationship. Check out usitalyforum.com.

You can find links to today’s information in the show notes at alonglookpodcast.com and in most podcast apps. If you don’t want to miss an episode, you can find player links on the site or just hit the subscribe or follow button wherever you listen to podcasts! 

Thanks for joining me!