Paolo Veneziano
A Scene from the Legend of Saint Mark

1345
Tempera on wood, 58 x 42 cm
Basilica di San Marco, Venice

This detail from an altarpiece in the basilica's museum represents an episode in the Golden Legend. A storm has threatened the ship carrying St. Mark's body from Alexandria to Venice. The saint appears to a monk on the ship and tells him how to get it to a nearby island. The monk is apparently the man in white pictured here three times – first praying, second raising his arms to the saint, and third raising those arms again to the island.

The painting is signed at the bottom MAGR. PAULUS CU LUCA. ET IOHE FILIIS SUIS PINXERUNT [HOC OPUS], "Master Paul with his sons Luke and John painted [this work]."

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Source: this page at Wikimedia Commons.