Columns of the Ciborium, San Marco, Last Supper Detail
Creator
Cioffi, Paul L., 1928-2004
Repository
DigitalGeorgetown
Description
"Cena Domini": The Lord's Supper is portrayed in an abbreviated way to accommodate the small niche space. This image, adjacent to the washing of Peter's feet, surely represents the Last Supper. However, it includes the unusual detail of a disciple bringing a fish to those seated at table. This relief carving is a detail of one of the four alabaster columns supporting the ciborium over the main altar of San Marco Basilica. Each of the four columns is divided into nine horizontal bands; each band has nine small niches (a grand total of 324 niches) populated with figures that recount 108 episodes from the lives of Jesus Christ and his mother Mary drawn from the canonical Gospels-especially those of Luke and John, the apocryphal gospels of James and Nicodemus, and the Byzantine cycle of "twelve festivals" (Dodekaortion). The four columns were probably brought to Venice from Constantinople sometime after 1204 when leaders of the Fourth Crusade sacked the capitol of the Byzantine Empire. They were installed in their present location during the first half of the 13th C. (ca. 1220s). Although differences in workmanship indicate that two of the columns were executed by a master carver and two by the master's assistants, all four columns appear to have come from the same Byzantine workshop. That the Crucifixion scene portrays Christ as the Mystic Lamb (not shown) suggests the columns were fashioned before this symbol was forbidden by the Trullan Council of 692. Stylistic comparisons with Eastern Empire ivories and with extant examples of other 6th C. sculpture of Istanbul date the column carvings to the reign of emperor Anastasius I (491-518). The Latin inscriptions carved on the blank bands between the bands of niches, meant to describe adjacent scenes, were added only after the columns were arranged as the ciborium supports in Venice.ca. August 1981
Permanent Link
http://hdl.handle.net/10822/554406Date
1981-08Rights Note
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Columns of the Ciborium, San Marco, Raising of the Dead Detail
Cioffi, Paul L., 1928-2004 (1981-08)