User:Carlyroell/Saint Mark's Body Brought to Venice

Composition
The painting is notable for its striking, deep perspective background lines. The colours are darker in the near subjects, while the figures in the background are white, nearly transparent. The strange red sky is roiling with ominous gray clouds, riven with a thunderbolt, affording the painting a heavy, dynamic atmosphere.[2] Tintoretto himself is portrayed within the work as the bearded man beside the camel.[2] He portrays Torcello and Malamocco carrying Mark's body as they arrived back in Venice. The Piazza San Marco, or St. Mark's Square is displayed in the painting with onlookers fleeing in the background. The public square appears narrow to convey the tenseness of the abduction of Saint Mark's body.

St. Mark the Evangelist
Saint Mark was also known as John Mark.[5] He is the author of the Gospel of Mark.[5] Most of the information that is known about Saint Mark is from the New Testament.[3] Mark's Gospel is the shortest of the four Gospels and is intended for converts in Rome.[3] The Gospel's main message is Jesus's refusal by humanity and God's successful envoy.[3] As a missionary, he was vital in passing on the Gospel alongside Paul and Barnabas.[5] Saint Mark later decided to leave Pamphylia resulted in discord with Paul and Barnabas.[5] Paul went separate ways from Mark, with Paul going to Syria and Cilicia.[5] While Barnabas went with Saint Mark to Cyprus.[5] Peter is known as a friend of Saint Mark and has referred to him as his "son".[3] Mark was in Rome with St. Peter and many view him as the first of four Evangelists. Saint Mark is not one of the twelve apostles so it is not known if he knew Jesus personally.[3] Although his body was ultimately laid to rest in Venice, Mark spent most of his life in Alexandria, Egypt.[6] He became the first bishop in Alexandria.[3]Venice holds Mark as a patron saint.[3] In 68 AD, Mark died. His body was brought to Venice in 828 AD to be stored in the Doge's Palace.[4] The memory of Saint Mark is seen throughout Venice in the large basilica. His memory can be viewed in St. Elizabeth Chapel, the Our Mother of Africa Chapel, an icon in the Byzantine Ruthenian Chapel, the Triumph of the Lamb Dome mosaic, and the northeast pendentive in the Trinity Dome.[5] Saint Mark's symbol is a winged lion.[3] The winged lion is referred to Saint Mark because the lion is from Mark's representation of Saint John the Baptist. Mark wrote that John is a "voice of one crying out in the desert"[3] The wings part derives from Ezekiel's depiction of evangelists as "four winged creatures".[3]

History
The body of Saint Mark was brought to Venice eight centuries after his death in 68 AD. Venice's ruling class wanted St. Mark as the patron saint for their economic status, the Venetians chose to smuggle Mark's body from Egypt.[6] While stealing the body, the thieves Buono da Malamocco and Rustico da Torcello hid the body under pork and vegetables from the muslims.[4] Once they arrived in Venice on January 31st, 828 AD, Mark's body was kept in Doge Giustiniano's palace.[4] When the doge died, his widow was ordered to build the Basilica di San Marco to house Mark.[6] Fear that Saint Mark's body would be stolen again continued after the death of the Doge. According to a French monk, Mark's body was safely stored in "one of the great pillars".[6] However, when the chapel of Basilica di San Marco was rebuilt in 1063, Saint Mark's body could not be found.[6] Thirty years after this, it was said that Saint Mark's body re-appeared, with his arm appearing from an old pillar.[6] After re-appearing, Saint Mark's body was finally put in a sculptured coffin below the high alter in the chapel.[6] The various domes and chapels in Venice serve as a memory for patron saint Mark.