![Accademia - Presentazione dell'anello al doge di Paris Bordone](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Accademia_-_Presentazione_dell%27anello_al_doge_di_Paris_Bordone.jpg)
''The Fisherman Presenting the Ring to Doge Gradenigo'' is a 1534 oil-on-canvas painting by the Venetian Renaissance painter
Paris Bordone
Paris Bordone (Paris Paschalinus Bordone; 5 July 1500 – 19 January 1571) was an Italian painter of the Venetian Renaissance who, despite training with Titian, maintained a strand of Mannerist complexity and provincial vigor.
Biography
Bord ...
(1495–1570). It was painted in
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
for the
confraternity
A confraternity ( es, cofradía; pt, confraria) is generally a Christian voluntary association of laypeople created for the purpose of promoting special works of Christian charity or piety, and approved by the Church hierarchy. They are most c ...
of
San Marco
San Marco is one of the six sestieri of Venice, lying in the heart of the city as the main place of Venice. San Marco also includes the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. Although the district includes Saint Mark's Square, that was never admin ...
in 1540. The painting treats the legend behind the tempest that struck Venice on 15 February 1340. It depicts a
gondolier
The gondola (, ; vec, góndoła ) is a traditional, flat-bottomed Venetian rowing boat, well suited to the conditions of the Venetian lagoon. It is typically propelled by a gondolier, who uses a rowing oar, which is not fastened to the hull, ...
returning the ring of
Saint Mark
Mark the Evangelist ( la, Marcus; grc-gre, Μᾶρκος, Mârkos; arc, ܡܪܩܘܣ, translit=Marqōs; Ge'ez: ማርቆስ; ), also known as Saint Mark, is the person who is traditionally ascribed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark. Acco ...
to the Doge
Bartolomeo Gradenigo.
The legend states that one night, while the gondolier was sleeping in his gondola, waiting for custom along the canal of S. Giorgio Maggiore, three mysterious individuals jumped into his boat and bade him to take them to the
Lido di Venezia
The Lido, or Venice Lido ( it, Lido di Venezia), is an barrier island in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy; it is home to about 20,400 residents. The Venice Film Festival takes place at the Lido late August/early September.
Geography
Th ...
. One of the three persons appeared to have the beard of an
apostle
An apostle (), in its literal sense, is an emissary, from Ancient Greek ἀπόστολος (''apóstolos''), literally "one who is sent off", from the verb ἀποστέλλειν (''apostéllein''), "to send off". The purpose of such sending ...
and the figure of a high dignitary of the
Church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* C ...
. The two others, by a certain sound as of armour rubbing beneath their mantles, revealed themselves as men-at-arms. The gondolier turned his prow towards the Lido and began to row; but the lagoon, so tranquil at their departure, began to chop and swell strangely. The waves gleamed with sinister lights; monstrous apparitions were outlined menacingly around the barque, to the great terror of the gondolier. Hideous spirits of evil and devils half-man half-fish seemed to be swimming from the Lido towards Venice, making the waves emit thousands of sparks and exciting the tempest with whistling and fiendish laughter in the storm. The appearance of the shining swords of the two knights and the extended hand of the
saintly personage made them recoil and vanish in
sulphurous explosions.
The battle lasted for a long time. New
demons succeeded the others however; the victory remained with the personages in the boat, who were taken back to the landing of the Piazzetta. The gondolier scarcely knew what to think of their strange conduct; until, as they were about to separate, the oldest of the group, suddenly causing his nimbus to shine out again, said to the gondolier:
: "I am
Saint Mark
Mark the Evangelist ( la, Marcus; grc-gre, Μᾶρκος, Mârkos; arc, ܡܪܩܘܣ, translit=Marqōs; Ge'ez: ማርቆስ; ), also known as Saint Mark, is the person who is traditionally ascribed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark. Acco ...
, the patron of Venice. I learned tonight that the devils assembled in convention at the Lido in the cemetery of the Jews. They formed a resolution of exciting a frightful tempest and overthrowing my beloved city. This under the pretext that many excesses are committed there which give the evil spirits power over her inhabitants; but as Venice is a good Catholic and will confess her sins in the beautiful cathedral which she has raised to me, I resolved to defend her from this peril of which she was ignorant, by the aid of these two brave companions,
Saint George
Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldie ...
and
Saint Theodore. I have borrowed thy boat; now, as all trouble merits reward, and as thou hast passed a boisterous night, here is my ring; carry it to the Doge and tell him what thou hast seen. He will fill thy cap with
golden sequins."
The Saint resumed his position on the top of the porch of
Saint Mark's Basilica, Saint Theodore climbed to the top of
his column, where his crocodile was grumbling with ill-humour, and Saint George went to squat in the depths of his columned niche in the great window of the
Ducal Palace.
The gondolier, rather astonished, would have believed that he had been dreaming after drinking several glasses of the wine of
Samos
Samos (, also ; el, Σάμος ) is a Greece, Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of western Turkey, from which it is separated by the -wide Mycale Strait. It is also a se ...
, if the large and heavy golden ring studded with precious stones which he held in his hand had not prevented his doubting the reality of the events of the night.
Therefore, he went to find the Doge, who was presiding over the Senate. Respectfully kneeling before him, he related the story of the battle between the devils and the patron saints of Venice. At first the story seemed incredible; but the return of the ring, which was that of Saint Mark, and the absence of which from the
church treasury
A church treasure is the collection of historical art treasures belonging to a church, usually a monastery (monastery treasure), abbey, cathedral. Such "treasure" is usually held and displayed in the church's treasury or in a diocesan museum. Hist ...
was established, proved the gondolier's veracity. This ring was locked under triple keys in a carefully guarded treasury, the bolts of which showed no trace of disturbance and could only have been removed by supernatural means. They filled the gondolier's cap with gold and celebrated a mass of thanksgiving for the peril they had escaped. This did not prevent the Venetians from continuing their dissolute course of life, from spending their nights in the haunts of play; at gay suppers, in love-making, in masking for intrigues, and in prolonging the long orgy of their carnival for six months in the year. The Venetians counted upon the protection of Saint Mark to go to
paradise
In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in parad ...
, and they took no other care of their salvation. That was Saint Mark's affair; they had built him a fine church for that, and the Saint was still under obligations to them.
[''Voyage en Italie'' ("Voyage in Italy", Paris, new ed., 1884).]
References
External link
{{DEFAULTSORT:Presentation Of The Ring
1534 paintings
Italian paintings
Renaissance paintings
Paintings in the Gallerie dell'Accademia
Venice in art