The Sala dei banchetti

The Sala dei Banchetti, once connected to the ducal residence by an aerial passageway built behind the apses of the church, was incorporated into the new patriarchal palace in the nineteenth century, and in 1991 given over to the museum by patriarch Marco Cè.
Between 2001-2002 thanks to an accurate study new spaces have been opened so as to connect the rooms over the atrium-narthex and the Sala dei Banchetti.

The section of the museum holding the church's precious collection of antique fabrics as its main nucleus has been set up in this noble space. In the centre is the weekday altarpiece by Paolo Veneziano, a fourteenth-century masterpiece, the board depicting the Madonna of Milk (13th-14th century) and that by Maffeo Verona (17th century), the rear covering for the Pala d'oro, one of the few paintings in the basilica. Objects of liturgical furnishings and fifteenth- and sixteenth-century choir books are also displayed here. The latter are decorated with illuminations and are evidence of the church's liturgical and musical tradition.

The 18th century decoration with the ceiling frescoes by Jacopo Guarana, the rococo elegance of the scrolls by Francesco Zanchi and the stuccoes by Bernardino Maccaruzzi, made by Francesco Re, complete the journey through time expressed by the masterpieces exhibited in the room.
The room is dominated from above by the big, haloed, winged lion, symbol of the evangelist and the city, confirming the fact that St. Mark's, with all its preciousness, was a ducal possession