The original Statue of Saint Theodore in the courtyard of the Doge’s Palace in Venice
“Il Todaro”
the first Patron Saint of Venice
“The statue depicting Saint Theodore of Amasea, the “Todaro”, one of the most revered saints among the martyr soldiers of the East and patron saint of Venice before St. Mark, was originally on the top of the western column of Piazzetta San Marco, next to the column with the lion of St. Mark.
The statue is a pastiche of pieces from different eras and places: the head probably belonged to a colossal statue depicting Constantine, the bust belonged to a loricate statue of a Roman emperor, perhaps Hadrian; the other parts of the body and the dragon at its feet, similar to a crocodile, were added at the beginning of the fourteenth century.
It is interesting to note the diversity of the materials used: the shield in Istrian stone; the legs, arms and dragon in Marmara marble (from the island of Marmarain the Sea of Marmara between the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea), the armour perhaps in lunense marble (Carrara marble named after the Port of Luni) or pentelic marble (from the quarry of the Mount Pentelicus, not far from Athens, also used for the Parthenon); and the head, which is in white marble from Docimium, near Afyon (today’s Afyonkarahisar) in the western Turkey.
The dragon recalls the iconography of St. George, whose cult is traditionally linked to the protection against swamping and the healthiness of the air.”