Dall’Oriente all’Occidente: capitelli ad incrostazione di mastice a nord di Venezia

In the east chapel of the sanctuary dedicated to Saints Victor and Corona (Stefania), near Feltre, is preserved one of the most significant episodes, in the upper Adriatic area, of sculptures entirely decorated with the technique of mastic encrustation, better known as niello or champlevé. The architectonical structure of the martyrium, which still preserves the relics of the two byzantine saints, involves three steps overlapping, of which the median one is opening at the center of the apse with an elegant loggia with capitals decorated all over with motifs finely carved and filled with mastic blacks and reds. All of these works were designed in pairs, and each one was prepared according to a specific project, focused on the arch in the middle of the eastern side with the two capitals adorned by kufic decorations: in fact, in this place there is an opening that puts in communication the interior with the founder’s tomb of the sanctuary located outside. While in the Veneto there are at least two similar sets of capitals, in the Basilica of San Marco in Venice and in San Donato in Murano, is not sufficient to draw a cross-reference with the lagoon area to explain the case of Feltre. Only looking towards the lands of the Byzantine periphery, especially Mesopotamia, Osios Loukas and more generally the Greek mainland, it’s possible to trace the matrix of this strongly characteristic lexicon that distinguishes the workers of Saint Victor.