Dipingere il marmo nella Langobardia maior et minor : dalla tradizione della tarda Antichità alla rielaborazione altomedievale

Painting the marble in Langobardia Maior and Minor: an inheritance of the late Antiquity developed through the early Middle Ages. The relationship between local practice and broader artistic networks in Italy during the Lombard domination is still a matter of discussion. Referring to painted decorations, the framework is complicated by evidence that is only modestly preserved. However, it can be said that the priority was to continue the sumptuousness of the decoration systems of the late Antiquity; hence, painted marble revetments, as well as imitation curtains and architectural framing, played a decisive role. Although historiography continues to stress the dissimilarities between Langobardia Maior and Minor, when surveying monumental evidence in its own locale, several features point to the substantial connection between the two focal points of the Kingdom. Painted dados are one such feature: from S. Salvatore in Brescia to S. Vincenzo al Volturno, from the Baptistery Church on Isola Comacina to the Basilica in Prata Principato Ultra, from the monastery of Torba to Monte S. Angelo or to S. Michele in Capua, the same polychromatic veined marbling, the virtual hook keeping the marble plates in place, and the peculiar staggered joint framing, recur systematically. The finest pictorial execution demonstrates to what extent ornament was taken into account in planning the decoration and how it was used to reinforce iconographic content. The aim of this presentation is to bring into focus this widespread circulation of decorative schemes drawn from the late Antiquity, which were adapted and developed by cultured commissioners and workshops.