PAOLO VENEZIANO
(b. before 1300, d. ca. 1360)

Pala feriale

1345
Two panels, 59 x 325 cm each
Basilica di San Marco, Venice

This altarpiece served to cover the Pala d'Oro on ordinary weekdays. Altarpieces were regularly covered during parts of the year, especially during penitential seasons, although most much more simply than this example.

In the centre, the dead Christ surrounded St George, St Mark, and the Virgin on the left, and St John the Evangelist, St Peter, and St Nicholas on the right. The lower register shows stories from the life of St Mark, the miraculous discovery of the saint's body, and its translation to Venice.

Paolo and his sons Luca and Giovanni signed the shutters of the Pala d'Oro on April 22, 1345, noting that it had been commissioned by the doge Andrea Dandolo.

This work marks the birth of Venetian narrative painting.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.