Venetian animals

Venice is an animal city. Nothing new there, people talk about it a lot. For a start, there is no way you could count the number of winged lions in this place. The winged lion is the animal associated, for reasons I am not privy to, with Mark the Evangelist, the patron saint of Venice. Before Mark (before his relics were stolen from Alexandria in the 9th century, apparently hidden by Venetian merchants under lumps of pork - a place the Muslim guards would never look - and brought to their new basilica) there was Theodore. Saint Theodore Stratelates, or of Amasea, who is now depicted on a column in Piazza San Marco with his associated crocodile, which should possibly be a dragon. But beyond the saints, there's a right marble menagerie throughout Venice. Here are a few of my favourites.

A palazzo on Fondamenta dei Mori with one of my favourite marble relief sculptures.

A camel, presumably from a caravan, here in the heart of Cannaregio.

This one's also a winner.
Somebody or other, patron saint of hedgehogs.
Seen here in an archway one has to duck under to get through to the calle.

Hedgehog on a shield.

At the top of the stairway in Palazzo Papadopoli, there is a monkey sitting on the balcony of a wonderful forced perspective fresco.

In the same stairway, these lions held in their mouths the rope that formed the handrail.

This one will look fantastic holding a knocker on our front door.

Similar to the carillon's donkey sculpture...
This one's at Peggy G's. 

As is a row of lions like this one, ready to chomp fast to the ropes tying the boats to shore.

Down the way there's this bell tower-kissing frog.

Beside Salute there's a gateway guarded by this mean looking bird on one side.

And this timid sheep on the other.

These peacocks are to be found on the outside of the Basilica.

And this half winged lion half bearded vulture on the inside.

Here's a back view of the replica bronze horses on the front of the Basilica.
(The real ones are just behind them, in the basilica's museum - an amazing space to visit, up high so right in the thick of the incredible mosaics.)

These guys we pass everyday on our way through Campo Santissimi Giovani e Paolo.

Just for weirdness, here's one of the two dinosaurs decorating the façade of the San Moise church.

The wolf suckling Romulus and Remus is on the recently rejuvenated statue in front of Hotel Londra Palace on the Riva degli Schiavoni.  

Around a corner in Campo Francesco Morosini is this super tough guy ripping open the jaw of a fierce big (unwinged) lion.

He's fighting pretty hard.

Here's another boat-tying lion on the Grand Canal.
Less handsome than Peggy's, I'd say.

Lions also make good props, like this one, greeting customers at the entrance of a fancy shop.

Possibly most important is the lion collection by the Porta Magna, the main entrance of the Arsenale, here reflected with Finn in the canal.
They are like an aunt's owl display - an assortment purchased and gifted over many years and from many places, some big some small, some ugly some clever looking. Two from ancient Greece.

These forced perspective marble panels in the ospedale façade (which was built as the Scuola Grande di San Marco at the end of the 15th century) are probably my favourite thing in Venice.

And finally, an example of Mark's lion.
Seen here at the top of the ospedale façade.

And this is Theodore, with his crocodile and a new Citroen.

Venice would've had quite a different look if it had been populated with crocodiles instead of lions.

In terms of living animals, there are stories about the days when there were horses and mules in the city. Days when the bridges were flat across the canals. Eventually the boats won out over the horses though, and they re-built the bridges with steps up and down so that boats could pass under them but no horses over them. Now, as I have mentioned previously, people just have excessive numbers of dogs, some cats, and quite a few caged birds - parrots, budgies, canaries, etc.

The ospedale aglow at dusk.

22 November 2011