The sacristy of San Marco, Venice: form and function illuminated

Hamlett, Lydia

The sacristy of San Marco, Venice: form and function illuminated

Resource type

Journal article

Creator (person)

Hamlett, Lydia

Date published

June 2009

Abstract

The sacristy at San Marco in Venice had a crucial functional role, both within the daily liturgical life of the basilica and especially during the ritual activity of Holy Week, which is reflected through its artistic programmes. This article focuses solely on the sacristy as a key site within the church, and its renaissance rebuilding and decoration c. 1491–1546. It examines the major elements of the programme in turn, including the mosaics, door, tarsie and tapestries. For the first time, each of these developments is viewed as complementary to a deliberate and coherent programme revolving around liturgical requirements, iconography of the Passion and overarching themes of triumph and redemption. Without surviving documentary evidence for the instigation of such a monolithic project, this article argues that the sacristy be looked at anew in light of contemporary understanding of the sacristy as a space. The practical and symbolic associations of the sacristy at San Marco are thus considered in this wider typological context in order to illuminate our own appreciation of the development of the sacristy's artistic programme.