Scene from St. Marc's Life

Paolo Veneziano was the leading painter of fourteenth-century Venice and the founder of the Venetian school, bridging the Byzantine pictorial tradition with the new Gothic naturalism arriving from Tuscany and northern Europe. This Scene from St. Mark's Life, painted around 1345, forms part of the celebrated Pala Feriale cover for the Pala d'Oro in St. Mark's Basilica, one of the most important commissions in medieval Venice. The cycle illustrates episodes from the life of Venice's patron saint.

Executed in tempera and gold on panel, Paolo Veneziano's style here combines the rich chromatic brilliance and hieratic formality of Byzantine tradition with a new Gothic narrative fluency. The architectural settings and figural groupings show an emerging interest in spatial depth, while the lavish gold and jewel-like color reflect Venetian taste.