Venice and the Two Romes: Byzantium and Rome as a Double Heritage in Venetian Cultural Politics Author(s): Debra Pincus Source: Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 13, No. 26 (1992), pp. 101-114 Published by: IRSA s.c. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1483433 . Accessed: 20/09/2014 23:09 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. IRSA s.c. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Artibus et Historiae. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Sat, 20 Sep 2014 23:09:31 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions DEBRA PINCUS Venice and the Two Romes: Byzantium and Rome as a Double Heritage in Venetian Cultural Politics The issue in these remarks is the relationship between Venetian legends, the story of the meeting of FrederickBar- Rome and that other durable power center of Italy, Venice.1 barossa and Alexander Ill,the hints of which already appear in Moreover,two Romes are involved:Old Rome,the Imperialcity Da Canal. A putative event of the twelfth century-but fully of emperors and popes, developed by Augustus as caputmun- developed over a period extending from the second half of the di-still today exerting its power in cultural and religious thirteenth into the fourteenth century-the legend presents a terms-and that other Rome to which Constantine gave his script of power politics that has Venice, in the person of its name, founded as a Christian capital and having its own dis- doge, as the trusted and honored supporter of the Roman tinct Imperialtraditions of a quite different character.2 Church, making peace between Frederick and Alexander, Alone among the Italianstates, Venice developed strong emerging as a figure of high authority.3 and complex ties to both Romes, drawing on the authority of The use of Byzantium and Rome as reference points in the imperium to legitimize its economic and political ambi- Venetian cultural politics has received increasing attention tions. The thirteenth century saw the concept of the two-fold from scholars in recent years. Otto Demus has made the case heritage of Venice laid down in its essential components. Hav- for the policy that is played out in art and politics in thirteenth- ing consolidated its position in the East as a result of the impre- century Venice to promote Venice as the successor to the se- sa of 1204, Venice proceeded to overlay its civic center with cond Rome, Byzantium.4Cultural historians, in particularBar- Byzantine spoils, even manufacturing new ones when it bara Marxand DavidChambers, have seen the early Byzantine wished. At the same time, close ties to Old Rome were being phase as supplanted--beginning in the fifteenth century and introduced into Venice's creative reconstruction of its past. then more decisively in the sixteenth-by a Western Roman One of the importantthemes of the thirteenth-century chroni- stance.5 Most recently, another line of scholarship, of which cle of Martinda Canal is the special relationship between the ManfredoTafuri is a leading exponent, has been emphasizing pope and Venice that is threaded through the text. This rela- the revival of the Byzantine reference in the fifteenth centu- tionship took concrete expression in one of the most cherished ry.6 However the attention to two currents remains compart- 101 This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Sat, 20 Sep 2014 23:09:31 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions DEBRAPINCUS 1) ((The Lion of Saint Mark,, original parts shaded. From: Ward Perkins, Antiquity XXI (1947). mentalized. What needs to be brought to the fore is the way in Western saint, Mark,produced out of the body of an Eastern which the two are intertwined in a consistent and rich duality bronze chimera;the Easternsaint, Theodore, inserted into the through much of Venice's long history. Using a selected group armorof a Western Romanmilitary leader. The Lionof St. Mark of monuments, I wish to discuss, in the form of an overview, adds wings, a Gospel book, and an extended tail to a sixth- or the continuous elaboration of Venice's double heritage over seventh-century B.C. hollow-cast bronze from the Eastern several centuries. The thrust of my comments is towards an Mediterranean,probably Anatolia [Fig. 1].7 The St. Theodore, emphasis on a continuing interplay-a surviving, vigorous wildly creative in its minglingand melding of diverse elements, East-West interplay-as opposed to a series of revivals. The uses a Roman Imperialcuirass decorated with sophisticated balance in the mix varies. Venice can pit one piece of the Roman Imperial imagery-winged victories flanking a heritage against the other when it serves the moment. We are trophaeum as the main attaches a head of Greek motif--and dealing here with a flexible heritage, which has its life because provenance. The whole is knitted together, with a few touches it can serve shifting and momentaryneeds. The intertwiningof of medieval armor, by a local sculptor during the early four- references has, over and beyond the function of establishing teenth century [Fig. 2].8 These two pieces placed at the Venice as a city with a pedigree, the very practicalvalue of rein- ceremonial entrance to the religious and political center of forcing specific political and economic policies. Venice serve as a graphicdemonstration of the intertwiningof I take as the emblems of my discussion the statues at the East and West that is at the heart of Venice's political and artis- sea entrance to Venice -the Lionof St. Mark,representing the tic policy.9 102 This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Sat, 20 Sep 2014 23:09:31 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions VENICE AND THE TWO ROMES 2) (cSt. Theodore), from column in Piazzetta, as seen during period of temporary display in court- yard of Palazzo Ducale. Photo: Soprintendenza per i Beni Ambientali e Architettonici di Venezia. 103 This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Sat, 20 Sep 2014 23:09:31 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions DEBRA PINCUS 3) Gold ducat of Doge Giovanni Dandolo, 1284. Photo: Ameri- 4) Electrum trachea of Emperor Manuel I, 1143-80. Photo: can Numismatic Society Photographic Services, New York. Dumbarton Oaks Collection, Washington, D.C. The centrality of the thirteenth century, the century of authenticated by a reference to respected Byzantine coinage, mythogenesis in Venice as Demus has characterized it, in es- utilizing the image of the consignment of the banner to the rul- tablishing the themes that Venice later reworked and refined is er, the canonical image of Byzantine gold coinage [Fig. 4]. The becoming more and more evident. 10 The horses of San Marco, Byzantine image of sacral power merges with the Western con- brought back from Constantinople by the triumphantly victori- cept of feudal obeisance, as used early and prominently in the ous Venetians in 1204, stand as one of the earliest and most sphere of papal iconography. Within Leo Ill's late-eighth-century striking examples of the East-West intermingling. Taken out of decoration program for the Lateran Palace in Rome, this feudal Imperial Rome, as many scholars now believe, the horses were image received an early and influential statement. Drawings brought to Constantinople, perhaps by Constantine himself, after the lost mosaic of c. 798-99 from the triclinium of Leo Ill as a sign of power transfer to the New Rome. The horses were [Fig. 5] show St. Peter investing the kneeling figures of Leo then brought back to the West by the conquering Venetians as and Charlemagne with emblems of rule, an image of the dele- a potent symbol of both Romes, and set up on the facade of the gation of power that was to become well established in papal church of San Marco probably shortly after the middle of the imagery. 12 thirteenth century." Less celebrated but fully as eloquent is In the fourteenth century the double heritage of East and the example of intertwining presented towards the end of the West was carefully nurtured as Venice's political power base thirteenth century by the imagery devised for the ducat [Fig. expanded onto the mainland. A key figure in the orchestration 3]. First minted in 1284, the gold ducat was explicitly designed of the two currents in the fourteenth century was the scholar- to make Venice the equal of Florence in international trade. It doge Andrea Dandolo, far-reaching in his sense of history and was to be, as the Senate decree of 1284 specified, "as good in his ambitions for Venice. Dandolo played a central role in and as fine as the florin." At the same time, the coin was Venice during the first half of the fourteenth century as holder 104 This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Sat, 20 Sep 2014 23:09:31 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions VENICE AND THE TWO ROMES 6) Tomb of St. Isidore, Chapel of San Isidore, San Marco, Venice. From: Wolters, Scultura veneziana gotica. Venice by Antenor, the Trojan hero who escaped the destruc- tion of Troyto establish a new lineage in the West.