Hello everyone I’m Elena from Italy and thanks to be here on Alessandro III di Macedonia- Alexander the Great and Hellenism. Today I’ll show you the photos of my super quick visit to Venice one day in May 2024. I hadn’t planned to go there and it was by pure chance that I went there and therefore I wasn’t prepared for the visit.
I know in Venice there are several beginnings scattered around the city about Alexander the Great and also in the Basilica, but my visit lasted a couple of hours (definitely too few to dedicate to the search for Alexander) and I was in the company of about ten other people, so I was satisfied with having seen at least the bas-relief of the Flight of Alexander the Great pulled in the sky by two griffins.
I wasn’t prepared for this visit to Venice and I’d never have imagined going there, otherwise I’d have read a couple of books on this subject because I’d have liked to be more prepared. But it was exciting to find that little clue about Alexander the Great. There were so many people around, more foreigners than Italians and above their heads there was that fantastic representation of Alexander, without many knowing it. This is what fascinates me about him.
Bas-relief from the Basilica of San Marco in Venice depicting the Flight of Alexander the Great pulled into the sky by two griffins attracted by two lures each held at the tip of a spear, one of the most famous episodes of the Alexander Romance. Dated to the early 13th century, upon the return from the Fourth Crusade, this slab represents the definition of the general project of the renovated church of San Marco which is based on the model of the sacked Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.
Alessandro III di Macedonia 