A power of relative importance : San Marco and the holy icons

Abstract

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, a number of new relics and other holy objects enriched the cultic landscape of Venice. The many pilgrims gathering at the lagoon before embarking for the Jerusalem and Palestine regarded these sacred items as foreshadowing the devotional experience they expected to have in the Holy Land. San Marco came to figure in this expectation only gradually: even if many visitors manifested their admiration for the basilica's beauty and its sacred treasures, not until the fifteenth century did San Marco's specific "holy topography", an internal network of holy attractions, take shape. Based on recent evidence, the present article describes the emergence of new forms of worship for a number of holy icons, namely the Cristo del Capitello, the Virgin Aniketos, and the Nicopea.