ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on sculpted altarpieces and chapels, of which there was an exceptionally large number produced in Venice in the Renaissance—by itself a rarely investigated occurrence. Because altarpieces were the main object genre shared by the major figurative arts in Venice (painting, stone sculpture, wood sculpture) their production spurred the kind of comparison and competition later familiarized by paragone texts. The chapter examines how realities of altarpiece production and questions of medial distinction were interwoven with concepts of matter and presence surrounding the altar as physical and spiritual site. It demonstrates how the looming spiritual and material presence of Saint Mark’s Basilica conditioned viewers’ response to sculptural facture and affect, underpinning the theatricality of sculpted altarpieces and chapels such as the Mascoli chapel (in the Basilica itself), and the Bernabò Chapel in San Giovanni Crisostomo.
