The western world looks at the city of Venice to be distinctly oriental. On the surface, the city fits an Italian profile, but it has always mainland an arm’s distance. The essential Moslem culture influenced the architecture of Venice unlike its chief competitors such as Genoa and Pisa. Another stream of thought claims that Byzantine artistic heritage influenced Venetian civilization and, therefore, those characteristics of Islamic architecture. The author of the essay argues on the subject of Islamic influence on the medieval architecture of Venice is indeed a complex and challenging one. The paper focuses on those characteristics in the Venetian architecture that are specifically Islamic in origin and not any of those shared elements inherited from Byzantium or Rome. Before giving any visual examples, the author explains the Eastern connections of Venice and how it was trading with the Islamic world by the early ninth century. Venetians signed trading treaties with the Egyptian Mamluks that kept up the flourishing trading posts in Cairo and Alexandria. He takes examples of doorways and windows in the great Umayyad mosque in Damascus to provide visual examples and the Islamic tree of life motif into its decorative stonework. Ibn raised domes of San Marco resemble their Egyptian prototypes and the delicate metalwork lanterns probably made in Venice show the influence of Islamic metalwork. Those examples clearly reflect the Venetian understanding of the Islamic society of Cairo and acceptance of their deeper religious significance. The author gives another intriguing example from the church of Santa Fosca on the island of Torcello to show the Islamic influence on Venetian religious architecture (Howard 63). An octagonal arcade wraps the sides of the church, and it is assumed that the church intended to carry a vaulted dome initially in place of the conical roof. The Byzantine imagery is consistent in the inner church which is five-sided, and one can see a notable resemblance to the ornamentation in Seljuk tomb towers in the bold terracotta decoration within the church. The Ducal Palace of Venice made between 1340 and 1361is infused with oriental references. The most apparent Islamic qualities can be seen in the two-dimensionality and openness of the faqades and the traceries of the piano nobile. The author offers another example of resemblance between the Arabic trading post and early Venetian palace. Veneto-Byzantine palaces, with their tall, slender, stilted arches, double-ogee arch motifs and pointed arched windows seek a distinguishing identity. Clearly, the Islamic architectural language was used deliberately in Venice.
The pieces of evidence presented in the essay prove the author’s point and his arguments are convincing as he explains each aspect carefully by comparing and contrasting. Still, it should be remembered that this article does not discuss the equally significant architectural ideas from architectural ideas and Byzantium. The essay adds to our understanding of the presence of Islamic characteristics in Venetian buildign and its urban fabric. The changing political and economic relationships have a role to play here as the thriving Venice's eastern trade and respect for the wealth and civilization of Islam must have encouraged the range of 'oriental' architectural Language. The Arab civilizations were flourishing and dominating at this time and Venetians who spent time in the Eastern Mediterranean must have bene influenced by their scientific expertise, material prosperity and culture. It should also be noted that the history of the Venetian Republic ran parallel to that of Islamic civilization. Venice is proud of her role as defender of the Christian faith and yet it came to acquire so many Moorish architectural and urban characteristics of the Islamic architecture.
Works Cited
Howard, Deborah. "Venice and Islam in the Middle Ages: Some Observations on the Question of Architectural Influence." Architectural History 34 (1991): 59-74. Web.
