Statue of Saint Theodore on the western column
(The original is inside the Doge's Palace)
Piazzetta San Marco
Venice, October 2012
“On the other column is poised the statue of Saint Theodore, the original patron saint of Venice. If you were to come closer to this image, you would notice that it is not in any sense the work of one hand. The head is of Parian marble, and is believed to represent Mithridates, king of Pontus; the torso is a Roman piece from the time of Hadrian the Great; the dragon, or crocodile, is in the Lombardic style from the first half of the fifteenth century. It is a glorious, and apparently haphazard, exercise in historical assembly. It deserves to be on its column. Once again it is an image of Venice itself.” (Peter Ackroyd, Venice: Pure City)
I don't believe I had ever seen a close-up of it.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for identifying this monument. I had assumed from a distance that it was St. Mark, but when a friend sent me a splendid zoom photo, I saw that the gentleman was standing on a dragon - now who was that? It couldn't be St. George - he has no specific association with Venice [the many divine depictions of the saint by Venetian artists in Venice churches nothwithstanding...] Neither could it be S.Michael Archangel - the figure has no wings. So - grazie molte for your photo and your fascinating description!
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