L’impiego della breccia rosata nei cantieri federiciani: scelta estetica o politica?

The paper focuses on the use of pink breccia from Gargano (in Apulia) in monuments directly commissioned by Frederick II as a precise programmatic choice, in its reference to porphyry. Quarries of a material, with petrological characteristics similar to the coral breccia, can be identified in a locality in the western Gargano from which the breccia, used both in the architectural plastic of Castel del Monte and in many building sites connected to the so-called “school of Foggia”, comes. The use of this material, after the brief Late Antique period, is resumed in Capitanata not before the second quarter of the thirteenth century and also marks the “Gothic” turn of the skilled workers in the service of the emperor (acute arch, crochet, and so on). The analysis of some buildings explains the steps that lead from Foggia to Castel del Monte, a manifesto of the mature aesthetics of Frederick II, passing through Pantano, San Severo, Lucera, Lagopesole. The ideological value of the pink breccia seems to be confirmed by its presence in the tomb, containing Frederick II’s entrails, which had been erected in the cathedral of Foggia.