One Arm, Two Bodies, Four Icons: St. George the Martyr, the Monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore, and Venetian Political Identity

This paper examines the role played by the monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice’s leading monastery, in the transformation of Venetian civic and political identity in the first half of the thirteenth century. During the period after the Fourth Crusade (1204), the city of Venice experienced the pangs of a newfound maritime empire and the challenges of imperial rule.  As a result, the community of Venice forged new ideas about their city’s status, power, and ultimate destiny.  Scholarship has focused on the leading secular figures and their roles in re-shaping the city’s identity. By using narrative sources from the monastery and artistic representations of St. George to illuminate the monastery’s role in the process of transformation, this paper opens up a new avenue for exploration of a major turning point in medieval Venetian history.