Hortus Artium Medievalium

The idea of classicism in art and culture was never totally absent from the minds of Middle Age knowledgeable men, either from a more religious and symbolical outlook, or from a more aesthetically and artistically approach. Classical culture - philosophical, geographical or architectural - was never fully discarded in this far more divided and conflictual world. Examples are not only the surviving fragments of classical texts, such as those from the architectural treaty of Vitruvius, but also the idea of the lost Roman Empire, that Charlemagne tried to “revive” but with a new double intent: as a Sacred (Christian) Empire, and as a gathering of Latin and Germanic populations, joining history, tradition and his own cultural origins.

The use of “classical” elements, orders and proportions, and - mainly - the powerful meaning of pure forms in architecture - such as the circle or any related centralized plan - lingered on throughout times. Inspired by the Imperial tombs of Augustus, Adrian or Diocletian (just to quote the most momentous), the centralized churches addressed here, tried to bridge the gap between the pagan tradition of the mausoleums, and the Christian appropriation of the symbolism of the Triumph over Death that the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem embodied.

The question of early medieval renaissance (Justinian, Liutprandean, Carolingian, Ottonian) is based on the possibility of defining any phenomenon of return, even indirect and coherent, to ancient culture as a renaissance. A return to ancient art does not necessarily imply a recovery of the idealized naturalism associated with classical culture. The affirmation of Christianity not only did not erase the forms of pagan art but brought about a regeneration of classical art, that is to say a rebirth intended to create a Christian equivalent to the pagan tradition. An important result of this phenomenon was that the successive returns to the paleo-Christian roots often determined a renaissance without however the necessary implications linked to a conscious re-appropriation of the forms of pagan art. Classical art continued to be considered a reservoir both of materials to be physically appropriated and of models to be re-proposed in new artifacts.

In the paper, the data on Muline site on Ugljan island in Dalmatia is interpreted in accordance with contemporary discourse on roman estate organization and their Late Antique transformations. Site is interpreted, along with the remains in Gospodska gomila, as a part of singular estate under imperial / state control. Possible connections with provincial capital of Salona are noted based on the archaeological finds and the structure typology. Site remains are then analyzed in the context of discourse on roman era estate transformations in the Late Antiquity and early middle ages in order to gain insight into socio-cultural aspects of island’s transformation.

This article is an overview of the sets of places of power in urban and suburban/rural contexts in the micro-area of the island of Krk, Croatia. First, the concept of places of power is terminologically and methodologically defined, mostly leaning on the definitions set in the essay collection “Topographies of Power in the Early Middle Ages” (2001) and placed in the Eastern Adriatic context. The established concept is then tested on the most important points in townscapes and landscapes of the island of Krk from the period of Antiquity to the early middle ages.

Is there a medieval Humanism -according to the definition developed by Burckhardt for Humanism-? Is there a Medieval Renaissance -according to the definition developed by Panofsky for Renaissance-? Trying to shed light on this question inevitably requires questioning the matrix from which both ideas arise. But it would be almost irresponsible, foolish probably, to try to answer this question articulately in the lines that follow. I will try, therefore, simply to question some of the aspects involving the relationship between them and the ninth-century city of Rome, aware of the fact that, from the fifteenth century onward -because of the consciousness with which it was coined by its creators- and from the nineteenth century onward -because of the nascent historiography-,’Renaissance’ and ‘Humanism’ have become the backbone holding up the body of art history.

To address this topic, we will begin by presenting a practical case: the relationship between the Arch of Constantine (Rome; 315) and the triumphal arch of Santa Prassede on the Esquiline Hill (Rome; 817). This is a relationship that could have been presented in terms of Carolingian “rebirth” or “renovatio.” In the second part, we will discuss the meaning of these expressions in a medieval context and in relation to both arches.

This paper intends to investigate images, places and strategies of the work of Popes Paschal I and Paschal II, in a hitherto unexplored handover that deeply marked the city of medieval Rome. The relationship between these two popes prompts a reconsideration of some of the assumptions of the debated renovatio ecclesiae primitivae formae of the 11^th and 12^th centuries, placing the popes of the Carolingian age among the main interlocutors in the process of reappropriating the decorum by the reformed church of the decorum of the Early church undertaken by the Reformed church.

The paper deals with the theme of “renascences” with reference to the Early Medieval Italian sculpture. This was indeed the object of various types of revival throughout the Middle Ages: 1) it provided a repertoire of decorative motifs that were often cited, sometimes imitated, and frequently reworked, especially in the Romanesque period; 2) it was the object of a veritable reuse, and Early Medieval materials were sometimes displayed in later masonry as a sign of antiquity, thus having a legitimising value for the new building, or else they became pure construction material; 3) the decorated pieces remained in place, maintaining their original function for many centuries.

Archaeology offers an important contribution to the reconstruction of the Early Medieval sculpture transmission paths, helping to specify times and ways that mark its destiny.

The construction of new cathedrals was essential in Count Roger’s political strategy at the end of the 11^th century. The plant often adopted has been traced by historiography to the model of Cluny II, already landed in Normandy. The construction of the abbey cathedral of Catania took place in 1091: Roger summoned the Breton monk Angerio from Calabria, appointing him abbot. The building, altered by natural disasters, maintains the eastern portion in the Norman conformation: transept with attached structures, presbytery area and scalar apses with crypt. Talking about Cluny’s model is perhaps inappropriate, while undoubtedly nordic is the expedient of narrow passages between the apses for liturgical purposes. The crypt is a striking monumental reuse: a pre-existing space, adapted to the conservation of the relics of Saint Agatha, whose repatriation took place in 1126. A low choir was set up between the sanctuary and the eastern portion of the aisles, in turn marked by supports composite: rectangular piers with two columns flanked side by side. This ambitious project was the first step in a programmatic renaissance, sought in the recovery of classical elegance and in the experimentation of innovative characters, which led to the prestigious royal architecture.

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.

The subject of our analysis is the system of decoration framing the Romanesque paintings of the church of San Pietro in Tuscania (Viterbo). Echoes of classicism and late antiquity pervade the painted architectural elements and the ornamental frames of the paintings. Single decorative motifs evoke the refinery of the classical period of the 1^st and 2^nd centuries A.D., and are inserted in an ornamental context seemingly designed to imitate the decorative painted marble and architectural elements of late antiquity. These echoes of late antiquity were probably in part influenced by the Roman paintings of the Romanesque or pre-Romanesque period. If we give a general look at the paintings, however, the recovery of classicism seems to be part of a historical context in which th central theme of the Deity is paramount and it is therefore hard to pick out humanistic features when the sacred aspect is dominant; except, possibly, in the six lay saints in military attire painted along the base of the apse, the only tangible sign of the recognition of sacred dignity applied to figures not directly part of the religious world.

The church of San Pietro in Consavia in Asti is one of the city’s main monuments. From the church came an altar frontal, now preserved in the Civic Museum, decorated with sculptures datable to the first half of the 14^th century. From the same period are two sculptures, depicting the Madonna and Child and Saint Catherine, which are found in the ‘rotunda’ of the church, as an embellishment of the capitals. All the works examined were part of the same decorative campaign, which is part of a renaissance in figurative art.

The new glazed pottery production in the late Middle Ages is linked to the political changes that took place after the Lombard age and is inspired by the renewal of social organisation and the economic impulse that characterised the centuries after the 11^th. Glazed ceramics represented a real ‘renaissance’ both from a technical point of view, with the use of lead or tin oxide glazes giving the vase a higher quality finish than the previous production, and from the decorative point of view, for the variety of geometric and phytomorphic patterns that embellish the vessels, making them almost artistic products. In the present contribution we will analyse glazed ceramics dating back to 13^th century from archaeological site of Sant’Ilario a Port’Aurea in Benevento, which is an early medieval monastic complex. The found pottery has vitreous coverage of good quality and rich decoration and could testify the presence of a highly qualified local craftsman.

Although the motif of a monkey is widely present in different medieval arts, and we can trace its development and changes in its form, symbolism, and narrative from the medieval to renaissance period in visual arts, it is not common on pottery. Our research focuses on the monochrome renaissance sgraffito cup from Sv. Ivan Kornetski in Croatia with the depiction of a monkey with a drinking vessel. To understand its interpretation, we will tackle changes in its narrative throughout history and according to its context.

Based on relatively humble residues from the field, completed by archival sources and comparative analysis, an outline of the town of Rijeka from the Late Middle Ages has emerged onto the surface. This outline is significantly different from the one which followed the town’s renewal in the aftermath of 1509 and 1511 Venetian ravages. The emphasis of the analysis has been put on architecture of the Late Gothic Augustinian Monastery in Rijeka which was closely related to the 15^th-century town’s feudal rulers. Stages of the church construction along with its initial cloister, preserved only in trace amounts, and alongside two votive burial chapels differ from one another. During the 15^th century, the town of Rijeka was transformed from the solely receptive one to a small, but emissive cultural centre in relation to the areas which gravitated towards it, such as Kras (Carso) and its Roman period road, which enabled Rijeka’s communication with the town of Trst (Trieste) and Kranjska (Carniola), primary economic hinterland of the time.

There is no doubt that Renaissance influences reached Rab through the work of architects and stonemasons, but the Gothic still continued to dominate in the architecture. The island’s elite sought to present itself through fashionable houses, investments in churches or tombs in a manner that they had observed elsewhere in the Adriatic region. However, this does not imply that such architecture or decoration had for them any meaning different from the Gothic. We can be justifiably doubtful of that because there are very few traces of humanism in the life of Rab’s nobility or its notable commoners - as far as can be concluded from the available sources. Their written culture was not impregnated by humanist ideas or ideals. Apart from the lack of financial means and the gradual falling out of important economic and social networks, one of the reasons for the absence of humanist and Renaissance practices could have been the political and social situation: using humanism as an element of self-identification, as was the case in Italy or in more developed Dalmatian cities, would not have improved the position of the island’s elite since the centre of power lay in.

New research was recently conducted on the medieval remains of the religious complex of Santa Giustina in Padua (Italy) within the framework of the project ArchiDate. The latter, funded by the University of Padua, gathered scientists from the fields of art history, archaeology, material science and archaeometric dating of building materials. After several decades of debates, the chronological framework for two key ancient structures of the complex, San Prosdocimo’s chapel and the so-called ‘Opilio’s mausoleum’, was established thanks to the integration of mortar luminescence dating in the stratigraphical study of the architectural remains.

The ecclesiastical complex of Illa del Rei is located on a coastal islet in the port of Mahón (Menorca, Balearic Islands). It was discovered by chance when a mosaic appeared which was made available in 1888 by a drawing by H. Llorente. New archaeological excavations undertaken in 2008 and 2013, have made it possible to re-examine the previous studies of the church’s pavement mosaic. This paper revises the mosaic taking into account the unpublished documents from the end of the 19th century deposited at the Real Academia de la Historia (Spain), a substantial photographic collection never studied in detail, particularly a series produced by the German Archaeological Institute in the early 1970s, as well as the photographs taken by Pere Engels in 2007, and by ourselves in 2008 and 2009, in the deposits of the Museu de Menorca (Mahón), where they have been stored on cement panels since their transfer in 1950. In addition, the remains of the in situ mosaic rediscovered in the excavation in the north aisle of the church, despite its poor state of preservation, has also been analyzed. All this information, as well as the re-study of the unpublished documents and the data provided by the recent archaeological excavations, facilitate a better understanding of the mosaic, its iconography, iconology, and chrono-cultural framework.

Il crescente ricorso dell’archeologia a un’ampia gamma di analisi scientifiche non solo permette di acquisire dati di differente natura, utili all’analisi interdisciplinare, ma può anche fornire nuovi percorsi di ricerca per verificare e implementare le attuali conoscenze specialistiche sulla cultura materiale, a cominciare dalle classificazioni tipologiche e dalle cronologie dei manufatti. Queste restano un imprescindibile presupposto per una solida analisi e interpretazione di temi e contesti, in relazione a significati e situazioni mutevoli e più in generale nella ricostruzione della progressione storica. In questo contributo si valutano potenzialità e limiti e anche le variabili da considerare nell’uso di genetica e statistica anche per una migliore seriazione tipologica della cultura materiale barbarica, in particolare quella longobarda in Italia.

This paper examines various sets sculpted during the reign of King Louis IX, focusing on the political and commemorative significance of iconography, based on details and particularities. Thus, the Coronation of the Virgin at the Villeneuve-l’Archevêque portal celebrates not only the triumph of the Virgin, but also, with a glorifying and memorial aim, the reception by the King of France of the Christ’s crown of thorns. Similarly, the sculpted decoration of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, “classical” as chosen iconographic subjects, nonetheless contains beautiful inventions linked to the architectural setting and the “monstrative” and highly symbolic function of the building. Perhaps in reaction, the canons of Notre-Dame de Paris decided to show at the Porte Rouge an image of the king’s submission to religious power.