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Document Details : Title: «Trovata nella cassa di S. Merco evangelista - 1811, 9 maggio» Subtitle: Rottami di un cofanetto eburneo con «animali ideali e fantastici, di uno stile bizzarro e arbitrario» Author(s): MORETTI, Simona Journal: Orientalia Christiana Periodica Volume: 90 Issue: 2 Date: 2024 Pages: 385-400 DOI: 10.2143/OCP.90.2.3294454 Abstract : On the occasion of the recognition of the body of the Evangelist Mark, which took place on May 6, 1811, a marble sarcophagus was found in the crypt under the high altar of the Basilica of St. Mark’s in Venice. Inside it was a wooden coffin covered with a drape and next to it a small ivory casket reduced to fragments. Fragments that today we know only thanks to a nineteenth-century engraving because they were closed in the tomb under the high altar of St. Mark’s, except for a piece on which an animal of difficult identification (a female deer?) is carved that I found in the collection of the Russian nobleman Grigorij S. Stroganoff (1829-1910). The aim of the study is to try to give an identity to this ivory casket, trying – through comparisons – to understand the place of production, the use in this case of animal representation and to confirm or question the dating proposed so far (11th century). The casket was probably made of bone panels and entirely decorated with animals. This type of box has been considered by some scholars, perhaps not wrongly, to be predominantly of Italian origin. Animal imagery is important both in the Western Middle Ages and in the Byzantine period and animals, real or imaginary, are considered symbols of vices or virtues. In this case they probably served as fearsome guardians of the precious materials kept inside the casket. The rosette frames and those with woven ribbons that were found among the fragments characterize both the Constantinopolitan production and the medieval Italian production in imitation of the Byzantine one. The casket could have been produced in Venice or in Southern Italy and could have been composed of pieces made in different places. We must not forget that it is an assemblable object. However, in the absence of a material confirmation, and on the basis of only a nineteenth-century engraving, caution is appropriate. There is more certainty regarding the dating to the eleventh century, which can be confirmed by the lead plate with an inscription found near the ivory fragments and by the proposed comparisons. |
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