hellovenezia

The animals of Venice. The Lion, symbol of the city’s patron saint, Mark the Evangelist, the rat, graffiti, sculptures, pateras dedicated to the animal kingdom.

Albeit the lion is the most represented animal in the city, mounted on columns in St. Mark’s Square, sculpted on the palazzo facades, allegorically painted in ‘official’ or otherwise paintings, there are still several other animals in marble sculptures and on the facades of numerous palazzos, houses, bridges and walls.
The animals are sometimes fantastic inside coats of arms, other times true tributes are made to the animal kingdom without any allegorical value: dogs, crabs, fish various birds, even the humble rat, which is also an important part of the city’s history.
Besides the well-represented lion, the horse has also often played an important part in the lives and history of Venice and its people.
It is strange to imagine horses walking around the city, but until 1600 they could go virtually everywhere, able to cross the bridges, which were built without steps or with very wide low ones.
The last example of this type of bridge (and very unusual because it has no sides), is the Chiodo Bridge  near to the ‘Grand School of Mercy’ in Cannaregio, while another example is the Devil’s Bridge on the Island of Torcello.

 Ponte Chiodo at Cannaregio

To get back to the horses, the most representative and famous are those on the loggia of St. Mark’s Basilica, where they have stood for eight centuries since 1204 (the Constantinople ransacking), and were only replaced by copies a few years ago due to the damage caused by the weather, while the originals are conserved in protected, conditioned rooms.
The rare feature of these horses is that they are in almost pure, molten copper, and not bronze, because the next gilding phase was much easier. They are amazingly beautiful, and the poet Francesco Petrarca described them saying: “They almost seem to be neighing and chafing the bit”.
Paradoxically though, this beauty has not helped us to define either when or where they came from or the artist.
There are many different hypotheses, from the Greek or Roman eras, from the Constantine era (3rd century AD), to Lysippus, Alessandro Magno’s official portray artist (circa 4th century B.C.).
What we do know is that the Venetians brought the houses back as war booty from the fourth Crusade in 1204, probably by ransacking Constantine’s hippodrome in Corinth.
They were cast in just two parts, joined at the collar, which, among other things, made it easier to transport them in the holds of the Venetian ships once they had been dismounted.
Once they reached the city, due to the debate about where to put them, they were ‘forgotten’ for a while in the Arsenal stores. A few years later some Florentine ambassadors were visiting the Serenissima shipyards and noticed the horses, after which they were placed on the terrace of St. Mark’s Basilica.
The four horses had their harnesses removed when they were positioned, which made them ideally closer to the symbol of freedom and independence of the Venetian State.
Then Napoleon Bonaparte took the horses to France as war booty (together with all their ideal significance) after he decreed the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797.

Following the historic evolution over the years, they came home (so to speak) after Venice was annexed to the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1815.
The original horses are can now be admired in the St. Mark’s Museum in the Basilica.

 The original horses in the St. Mark’s Museum

A short walk from St. Mark’s Square we reach Campo SS. Giovanni and Paolo, where there is another famous quadruped on the equestrian monument of Bartolomeo Colleoni.
Colleoni was born in Bergamo on the banks of the River Adda, at the end of the 15th century. Of noble origins he began his warrior career as a stable-boy when he was just 14 years old.
A very intense and adventurous life, doubly tied to the events that led to what was almost the maximum extension of the Venetian Republic on the mainland.
A love-hate relationship, made of often very tough concessions and tension for the “Invincible”, as his soldiers called him, and for the man who was an innovator in the military art of the era.
His was the idea to transport ships by land, to use firearms for the first time on the battlefield, in 1466 in Molinella di Ricciardina, where he used the so-called “springals”, which he even had mounted on small carts.
In his will, he asked to be buried in St. Mark’ Square, with an equestrian monument erected by his heirs and paid for by them from the rich donation he left to the Serenissima.
Venice was always sensitive to the unbalance that was caused by the cult of individual personalities, so they allowed the monument to be erected but decided to place it in front of St. Mark’s School in Campo SS. Giovanni and Paolo.
This is the legend, and the equestrian monument is likewise legendary, designed by Andrea Verrocchio (Maestro of Leonardo Da Vinci) between 1481 and 1485, and cast in the city under the supervision of Alessandro Leopardi, after Verrocchio died, using the difficult “cast wax” technique.
The sculpture is one of the masterpieces of Venetian Renaissance art, and the proud Commander is accompanied by the even prouder trot of his powerful, furious steed.

 the equestrian monument of Bartolomeo Colleoni

Continuing with the topic of horses, just a few steps over the threshold of the Basilica of SS. Giovanni and Paolo, there are some equestrian funeral moments, two of which are very interesting. The 17th century ones dedicated to Orazio Baglioni, General of the Republic who died in the Gradisca war in 1617, and the gilded wood one designed by Francesco Terillio dedicated to Pompeo Giustiniani, known as “Iron arm” (having lost his limb due to canon fire, and replacing it with a metal prosthesis), a Sardinian commander, who died in the Friuli, or Gradisca War, during the siege of Gorizia in 1616 when he was hit by musket-fire.
Leaving the Basilica cross over the Cavallo Bridge, along the street (Calle Larga Giacinto Gallina), which a terrorising Director of the TG4 news programme Emilio Fede, described in a television talk show as a place of unspeakable night-time turpitude, follow a short route (Miracoli, S.Cancian, SS.Apostoli, Strada Nuova), to reach the small “tribute” to the rat.
It is an anonymous graffiti on a beautiful impressive column at the corner of Palazzo Boldù-Ghisi-Contarini, which overlooks the Grand Canal from Calle del Traghetto, a side street of Strada Nuova, just after Ca’d’Oro and in front of the S. Felice Church.    

The rat, Latin name “ractus ractus” is the recognised symbol in Venice of decline and abandon, of crumbly canal sides, of rubbish left to rot in the streets, of canals seen as openair sewers.
It is also perhaps the symbol of how mysterious and profound the heart of the city is.
Rats can transmit more than thirty illnesses to humans, including the terrible bubonic plague which was carried by the flea Xenopsylla cheopis in the rat’s fur and caused terrible epidemics.
However the rat is also a very intelligent animal and good company if it is domesticated and, despite all the legends, tends to be very clean.
Our rat is depicted in a cheerful leap with his whiskers wide open, perhaps by a bored gondolier while waiting for work, and who knows what story it wants to tell us, but it is quite merry and very similar to a Disney cartoon, rather than to the evil outcome of Hamelin’s Pied Piper by the Grimm brothers.
A short walk from here and you reach the ACTV stations at Ca’ d’Oro and S. Marcuolo, both served by the number 1 water bus.