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The Travels of Herakles and the Glory of Venice: Mythical Symbolism and Political Identity in the Basilica San Marco
Baschiera, Lou-Ann Marie Armelle Chiara
Baschiera, Lou-Ann Marie Armelle Chiara
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Abstract
The basilica of San Marco is a unique example of a multi-generational and culturally syncretic monument in the medieval period. On the west façade of this important civic monument is a thirteencentury marble relief of the mythological hero Herakles, a figure central to both classical and medieval visual traditions. While the basilica has been studied extensively, the Herakles relief has rarely been examined as an independent subject. Scholars have interpreted the presence of Herakles on the façade as an assimilation to Christ, as a Byzantine icon, or as an articulation of Venetian state ideology, as an exemplum virtutis. Yet, there is a lack of consideration of the Herakles’ relief as deliberately fabricated in the thirteenth-century to evoke antiquity and serve ideological purposes within Venice’s broader program of civic mythmaking and political legitimization. More specifically, the relief may be viewed in the aftermath of the loss of Constantinople of 1261, when Venice, under Doge Ranieri Zeno, responded with the embellishment of San Marco’s façades, incorporating both spolia and pseudo-spolia to assert continuity with its fabricated classical past and reinforce its imperial identity. This study will interpret the thirteenth-century Herakles as a work of pseudo-spolia, and compare it to its fifth-century counterpart still on the west façade, and the late eleventh-century relief of Alexander the Great on the north façade. One of its goals is to explore how Venice recontextualized classical heroes within Christian civic frameworks. It will be argued that this was a strategy specifically positioned to communicate resilience following the loss of territory, divine favor, and cultural negotiation, transforming the basilica into an expression of the “myth of Venice.” This thesis situates the relief within the political and artistic landscape of mid- thirteenth-century Venice, particularly under Doge Ranieri Zeno, whose urban innovations reshaped the basilica and piazza into ceremonial spaces echoing Byzantine grandeur. By examining the relief’s iconography, spatial placement, and stylistic features, this study reveals how pseudo-spolia functioned not as a deception but as a deliberate tool of cultural memory and visual rhetoric. Ultimately, the Herakles relief exemplifies Venice’s strategy of fabricating a civic past rooted in antiquity, and asserts its role as a sovereign power through the medieval Italian-city-state tradition which transforms myth into public art.
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Thesis (B.A. in Art History, Minor in Classical Studies)--John Cabot University, Fall 2025.
Date
2025
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Keywords
Basilica di San Marco, Christian art and symbolism, Church decoration and ornament
Citation
Baschiera, Lou-Ann Marie Armelle Chiara. "The Travels of Herakles and the Glory of Venice: Mythical Symbolism and Political Identity in the Basilica San Marco". BA Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2025.