Videos by Francesca Dell'Acqua, Associate Prof., History of Medieval and Byzantine Art
The project is designed to reach to a new understanding and promote a timely revaluation of the e... more The project is designed to reach to a new understanding and promote a timely revaluation of the early medieval church of Sant’Ambrogio alla Rienna, discovered in the late 1970s by local cultural heritage enthusiasts in the countryside of Montecorvino Rovella in the province of Salerno. This was the site of the capital established by Arichis II, the duke self-proclaimed prince of southern Langobardiaafter Charlemagne’s conquest of northern Langobardiain 774.
Investigations undertaken at the church, funded by the British Academy, the Gerda Henkel Stiftung, the universities of Salerno and Birmingham, and facilitated by the Municipality of Montecorvino Rovella, indicate its clear links to the material culture of the secular courts and the monasteries in southern Langobardia in the late eighth and ninth centuries. 230 views
Papers by Francesca Dell'Acqua, Associate Prof., History of Medieval and Byzantine Art
Glassmakers in the West between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages
The Earliest Homilies on Mary’s Assumption: Ambrose Autpert and The Byzantine Tradition
Viator
The Hidden Sides of the Salerno Ivories. Hypotheses about the Original Object, Program, and Cultural Milieu
The hypotheses proposed about the original arrangement, and therefore about the original function... more The hypotheses proposed about the original arrangement, and therefore about the original function of the Salerno ivories, have been recently summarized, and further discussed with new insights. However, nothing is known of where and how the ivories were produced and assembled before the modern era, as there is no hint as to when and for what reason the original object they constituted was disassembled. This essay attempts to reassess the evidence and present new interpretations regarding the original function of the Salerno ivories, their iconographic program, and the cultural milieu in which the plaques were carved. Their subjects appear connected with the patristic tradition, with arguments of the Church Reform, with cogent theological debates, and with recent political events. A multifaceted iconographic program such as this implies a solid command not only of the Scriptures and Christian exegesis, but also participation in important intellectual debates. At the same time, it reflects a profound intellectual and political self-awareness on the part of the patrons and appears intended to affirm the secular role of ecclesiastical officers. Political stability was achieved in Salerno only in the twelfth century, when the Norman rule was firmly established and archbishops enjoyed exceptionally long appointments. Therefore, I would like to suggest that the Salerno ivories are the artistic output of a cultural environment that matured around the mid-twelfth century, when the city emerged as a major center of political and intellectual activity
Il volto di Cristo e il dilemma dell'artista: un esempio di IX s
La vetratina con Cristo scoperta presso il monastero altomedievale di San Vincenzo al Volturno, c... more La vetratina con Cristo scoperta presso il monastero altomedievale di San Vincenzo al Volturno, che qui si vuol proporre come destinata a chiudere l’unica finestra della nota cripta dell’abate Epifanio (824-42), fa riflettere sulla riflessione teologica e sulla accentuata sperimentazione artigianale e artistica che ebbe luogo nell’allora importante monastero tra il tardo VIII e i primi decenni del IX s. Negli stessi decenni nei quali Epifanio faceva illustrare la cripta, papa Pasquale I propugnava una teoria delle immagini profondamente influenzata dalla letteratura iconofila bizantina della prima e della seconda fase iconoclastica, sostenuta a Roma dall’autorevole comunità religiosa greca. Gli scritti di Autperto, ravvisati quale fondamento delle pitture della cripta, risultano influenzati dal primo pensiero iconofilo orientale nell’esaltazione di Maria quale Madre di Cristo e Regina dei cieli. Alle pitture di Epifanio, che si fanno interpreti di questi concetti, poteva ben fungere da ideale complemento la innovativa vetratina con Cristo. All’imbarazzo di rappresentare il volto di Cristo e il suo aspetto corporeo nei loro caratteri umani, l’artigiano operoso a San Vincenzo seppe dare una risposta nuova, efficace, che evidenziava la natura di Cristo come Incarnato nel seno di una donna ma al contempo ineffabile nella sua divinità. Risposta che si suppone suggerita da un profondo conoscitore del dibattito teologico iconofilo contemporaneo
The "Salerno" ivories : a "pocket" encyclopedia
Introductory paper to the workshop "Gli avori ’amalfitani’/’salernitani’ e l’arte nel Medite... more Introductory paper to the workshop "Gli avori ’amalfitani’/’salernitani’ e l’arte nel Mediterraneo medievale." This workshop is the first stage of the project "Mediterranean Cross-Currents : the So-Called ’Salerno Ivories’ as Examples of Artistic Interaction in the Middle Ages," a cooperation between the Centro di Cultura e Storia Amalfitiana, Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, and other European and U.S. institutions
The "Amalfi"-"Salerno" ivories and the medieval Mediterranean : a notebook from the workshop convened in Amalfi (December 10-13, 2009)
Glassmakers in the West between Antiquity and Middle Ages
Although the history of glassmakers between late Antiquity and the year 1000 is scarcely document... more Although the history of glassmakers between late Antiquity and the year 1000 is scarcely documented, many useful clues can be learned from the few written accounts to reconstruct the ‘many sided figure’ of such artisans. In the past, paucity of information has discouraged any broad investigation of the subject and therefore it seems worthwhile to consider some of the causes for their absence from written history. Aside from the general lack of sources on craftsmanly labor of all kinds during the high Middle Ages, there is also their presumed isolation especially of glassmakers, who were compelled to work in suburban areas because of the dangers of fire and smoke which their activity entailed. Another consideration is that glassmakers carried little weight in western society and glass as a luxury was the the prerogative of the few. There may have been, as well, an ethnic factor because of the Hebrew origins of glassmakers that would account for their exclusion from the historical record . Finally, it has been noted that glassmakers were altogether the least mentioned artisans and their activity figured only exceptionally
Illuminando colorat. La vetrata tra la tarda Antichità e l’alto Medioevo attraverso le fonti e l’archeologia. Studi e Ricerche di Archeologia e Storia dell’Arte, 4. Collana diretta da L. Pani Ermini e A. Peroni
Indice: E. Castelnuovo, Presentazione - Introduzione: « Una metafora incarnata » - I. L’impiego d... more Indice: E. Castelnuovo, Presentazione - Introduzione: « Una metafora incarnata » - I. L’impiego del vetro nella decorazione architettonica tra tarda antichità e alto medioevo - II. La continuità di impiego della vetrata tra tarda antichità e alto medioevo - III. I Vetrai e le vetrate nelle fonti scritte tra il IV e il XII secolo: considerazioni introduttive al repertorio delle fonti - IV. Le fonti: i Vetrai, le vetrate (secc. IV-XII) - Conclusioni: Una ‘nuova immagine’ della storia della vetrata - Selezione bibliografica sul vetro e le vetrate - Fonti e bibliografia generale - Indice dei nomi e dei luoghi - Indice delle tavole - Tavole
Santa Maria Maggiore a Lanciano e i cantieri cistercensi in Abruzzo
Les vitraux du monastère de San Vincenzo al Volturno (région du Molise, Italie centrale)
Geschichte und Archäologie
L’acqua nella memoria sacra di Edessa attraverso la cornice del Mandylion di Genova
La cornice del dipinto con il Sacro Volto di Cristo o Mandylion (Genova, monastero di San Bartolo... more La cornice del dipinto con il Sacro Volto di Cristo o Mandylion (Genova, monastero di San Bartolomeo degli Armeni), realizzata in una raffinata officina bizantina della prima metà del XIV s. , illustra la storia del Mandylion, l’immagine-reliquia di Edessa (fig. 1). Le dieci formelle di minute dimensioni (48 x 48 mm), lavorate a sbalzo, cesello, smalti, niello, presentano una iconografia basata su una silloge di diverse fonti sia letterarie , sia orali , che ricorre anche a efficaci citazioni della topografia sacra di Edessa. Nei secoli la storia del Mandylion, anche nota come Leggenda di Abgar, è stata illustrata in menologi , rotoli-amuleti , in pitture murali e icone slave; ma tra tutte le opere di piccolo formato che illustrano la storia del telo edesseno miracolosamente impresso con le fattezze del Cristo vivente – per questo detto acheropoieitos, ossia non-fatto-da-mano-umana – la cornice di Genova è quella che reca il ciclo più completo . In modo incisivo, selezionando tra le disparate fonti che trattano del Mandylion, la cornice narra di come Abgar, re della città-stato mesopotamica di Edessa, afflitto da una malattia incurabile, inviasse a Gerusalemme un messo per convocare al suo capezzale Cristo affinché lo guarisse (formella 1); di come il messo tentasse, invano, di ritrarre Cristo (formella 2); di come Cristo avesse scritto una lettera ad Abgar che accompagnasse l’invio della propria immagine, prodotta miracolosamente per contatto di un telo con il proprio volto bagnato (formelle 3 e 4); di come Abgar venisse guarito dal telo impresso con il volto di Cristo (formella 5), e pertanto convertisse sé e il suo popolo al Cristianesimo (formella 6) (fig. 2); di come il telo, nascosto e quindi riscoperto per miracolo (formelle 7 e 8) (fig. 3) avesse funto da palladio urbico durante l’assedio persiano del 544 (formella 9) (fig. 4); di come il Mandylion fosse poi giunto a Costantinopoli nell’anno 944 (formella 10) (fig. 5). Dal momento che l’immagine-reliquia del Mandylion ha contribuito in modo determinante a definire l’identità di Edessa quale città santa, qui interessa sondare in che modo questa relazione sia stata tradotta in immagini nella cornice di età paleologa conservata a Genova. Infatti, lo spazio urbano edesseno, nei suoi punti focali sacri e politici, e il circostante territorio mesopotamico dominato dal fiume Eufrate emergono in modo netto nella cornice, che tralascia invece accenni alla fisionomia di Gerusalemme, da cui proveniva il Mandylion, e allude solo allo stretto del Bosforo per quanto riguarda Costantinopoli, dove verrà traslato. Non potendo in questa occasione esaminare tutti gli elementi della topografia sacra di Edessa evocati dalla cornice di Genova, ci si concentrerà su alcuni di essi che coinvolgono l’elemento acquatico: ossia il palazzo di Abgar (13-50 d.C.), il pozzo del Mandylion e il fiume Eufrate, che nell’ultima formella appare idealmente connesso al Bosforo
Le quattro lamine di rivestimento in filigrana
Il contributo analizza gli aspetti tecnico-compositivi delle lamine di rivestimento dell'icon... more Il contributo analizza gli aspetti tecnico-compositivi delle lamine di rivestimento dell'icona del Sacro Volto di Cristo o Mandylion di Genova
Carlomagno, la conversione dei Sassoni e il Westwerk di Corvey
Circa sessant’anni fa alcune pitture murali raffiguranti Odisseo che combatte contro Scilla e alt... more Circa sessant’anni fa alcune pitture murali raffiguranti Odisseo che combatte contro Scilla e altri temi legati al mare furono scoperti sui muri interni del piano superiore del Westwerk carolingio di Corvey sul Weser (Renania Settentrionale-Vestfalia), eretto e decorato tra l’873-85. Hilde Claussen, incaricata di studiare le pitture e gli stucchi emersi dalle indagini archeologiche ivi condotte, ha dedicato nel corso di svariate decadi alcuni saggi a queste pitture, e in particolare alla scena di Odisseo, puntando giustamente alle radici patristiche di tale immagine in un contesto monastico. Il soggetto è stato ridiscusso dall’archeologo George M. A. Hanfmann nella Festschrift in onore dell’eminente storico dell’arte Ernst Kitzinger, pubblicata da Dumbarton Oaks nel 1987, e di recente nel volume che ha pubblicato definitivamente le scoperte archeologiche fatte nel monastero tedesco. I Padri della Chiesa, commentando il Vangelo, avevano elaborato la metafora nella quale la vita umana è rappresentata dal navigare in un mare di pericoli ma anche di attrattive. Tale metafora venne ripresa soltanto da alcuni autori altomedievali, tra i quali gli influenti abati Ambrogio Autperto (+784) di San Vincenzo al Volturno, Rabano Mauro (+856) di Fulda e Pascasio Radberto (+865) di Corbie, abbazia madre di Corvey. L’età di Carlomagno e dei suoi successori fu teatro di un intenso dibattito sulle immagini sacre, la cui ragione d’essere – venne stabilito – era nell’avere una funzione edificante. E’ opportuno pertanto contestualizzare le pitture di Corvey in tale cornice teoretica. Allo stesso tempo, un’altra metafora di matrice patristica, l’amor saeculi (ossia un insano, ma tipicamente umano attaccamento al mondo), aspramente criticata da Autperto, deve essere chiamata in questione alla luce degli sviluppi politico-culturali carolingi nel corso del IX s. Questo intervento, oltre a offrire uno spunto ulteriore in merito all’origine non solo testuale ma anche iconografica della scena di Odisseo, desidera aprirsi all’interpretazione del significato complessivo del ciclo pittorico, che originariamente ornava il piano superiore di Westwerk, destinato ad accogliere l’imperatore e i suoi legati
Beyond Human Grasp. The Funeral of the Virgin on the “Wirksworth Stone” (Derbyshire)
Convivium, 2021
Beyond human grasp. The Funeral of the Virgin on the ‘Wirksworth stone’ (Derbyshire) The lid of a... more Beyond human grasp. The Funeral of the Virgin on the ‘Wirksworth stone’ (Derbyshire) The lid of an Anglo-Saxon burial, carved in sandstone and found in the church of St. Mary the Virgin at Wirksworth (Derbyshire, England), displays scenes of the life of Christ and the Virgin Mary. These scenes have been related to the main liturgical feasts of the Christian calendar as attested in the eastern Mediterranean and actually have close eastern models. They have also been related to liturgical rituals in the Anglo-Saxon Church and to the hope for eternal salvation. Among these scenes of particular interest is the Funeral of the Virgin and the Assumption of her soul into heaven. The death and the Assumption of the Virgin into heaven, of which no trace is found in the Scriptures, was a controversial question which was not settled by theologians until 1950 when the dogma of her spiritual and bodily Assumption was adopted. In fact, her transition to the afterlife relied on apocryphal accounts and the sixth-century testimony of the pseudo-apostolic author Dionysius the Areopagite. The way in which these themes are rendered at Wirksworth is unique in the landscape of early medieval figural arts: the Funeral is the second earliest figural rendition of the subject and the Assumption of the soul, the earliest. They could be better explained in the context of an extraordinary exchange of ideas, beliefs and artefacts between the eastern Mediterranean, continental western Europe, and Anglo-Saxon Britain. After outlining the programme of the Wirksworth stone, I will focus on those scenes in which the Virgin features in order to contextualise them within the visual and religious cultures of the Mediterranean and beyond, but also to remark their eventual novelties, hence going beyond the quest for specific iconography models pursed so far. On the one hand, their analysis will make clear that they reflect an acquaintance with objects and tales from pilgrimage sites of the Holy Land as well as with eastern homilies celebrating Mary’s Assumption in body and spirit – in sum, an acquaintance with an eastern religious culture that placed Mary squarely at the centre of private devotion and desire for intercession before God. On the other hand, their analysis will demonstrate that the Wirksworth slab shows an inventive approach to the illustration of sacred stories which must not be necessarily connected to textual or visual prototypes. The connections with the eastern Mediterranean may also help to better define its chronology at a time preceding the western debate on Mary’s Assumption. Finally, I will maintain that the Wirksworth stone innovatively and effectively visualises the fact that the mystery of Mary’s transition to the afterlife lies beyond human grasp and can only be embraced through a mystical approach which transcends the senses – thus expressing the only sensible position on the unsettled question of her Assumption.
Mary as ‘Scala Caelestis’ in Eighth- and Ninth-Century Italy
The Reception of the Virgin in Byzantium, 2019
This paper explores the reception and reshaping of the theme of the Dormitio in homilies as well ... more This paper explores the reception and reshaping of the theme of the Dormitio in homilies as well as in visual arts produced in early medieval Italy. Connected to other papers presented in the workshop as for the interaction between textual and mental images of Mary (Olkinuora), it also found a natural prosecution in another dealing with the development of the theme of the Dormitio in tenth and eleventh centuries Byzantine texts (Booth). The case-study chosen for this paper is an image of the Virgin Assunta depicted in the apse of the small ‘crypt’ of the abbot Epiphanius (824–42) in the monastery of San Vincenzo al Volturno, in the former Langobardia Minor, preserving the most important painted cycle in the early medieval central-southern Italy. Mary sits on a throne, holding a book where a quotation from the Magnificat hymn is inscribed. The throne, the crown, and five archangels paraded in the lower section of the vault, make her appear as the Queen of Heaven ruling with her Son, who is depicted on another throne in the vault above. The painted cycle of the crypt has been analysed by generations of art historians, among whom Toesca (1904) and Belting (1968) traced a connection between its contents and the writings of the Gallic author Ambrosius Autpertus († 784). He was a monk, briefly abbot, and a renowned theologian active at San Vincenzo al Volturno in the second half of the eighth century. In his Sermo de adsumptione sanctae Mariae – the earliest original homily on the Dormitio attested in the Latin West ¬– Mary is presented as reigning above the Angels with her Son. Autpertus quotes the Magnificat in celebrating the humility of Mary, a virtue that made her the celestial ladder to Heaven from which God descended to Earth and humanity can ascend to salvation – thus adopting a new metaphor in the West for describing her role in the history of Salvation. This metaphor is instead to be found in the Byzantine Marian tradition from the sixth century, and revived by iconophile writers of the early eighth century. The latter already connected the Magnificat to the moment of Mary’s transitus in their homilies on the Dormitio. Although the modalities of transmission of iconophile homilies to the West have not been investigated, it remains the case that Autpertus declares that he could not find «apud Latinos» anything related to the Dormitio, and that he then adopts a phrasing, metaphors, epithets applied in the Byzantine tradition to describe Mary, her Assumption into Heaven, her role in the history of Salvation. Interestingly, the mural painting with the Assunta pre-dates of one century the earliest Byzantine depiction of the Dormitio of Mary, which instead present Mary on her deathbed surrounded by the Apostles. The Assunta at San Vincenzo should not be explained by mechanically comparing it to earlier theological writings, but by reconstructing the modalities of circulation of theological concepts between East and West in the period of the ‘image struggle’, their influence on the religious mentality, and their eventual ‘translation’ into visual imagery
Iconophilia in Italy, c. 680-880 – A European Project and Its Method
IKON, 2018
This paper presents a recently finished project entitled ‘Iconophilia’, which engaged with the ec... more This paper presents a recently finished project entitled ‘Iconophilia’, which engaged with the echoes that the Byzantine debate on sacred images had in Rome and in central-southern Italy. This project was funded by the European Commission at the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman, and Modern Greek Studies, and based at the University of Birmingham (2015-2017). Maintaining a firm Chalcedonian Christology, which acknowledged the perfect dual nature of Christ, the popes supported sacred images because they visualised the Incarnate God and were useful in liturgy, instruction, and private prayer. The unremitting iconophile position of the papacy defined Christian religious mentality and art for centuries. In this article, I trace the methodology followed in this project, to unveil cross-disciplinary, overlooked or unexplored aspects of the papal and monastic response to Byzantine Iconoclasm, as a contribution to a cultural history of that period.
Synergies in Visual Culture / Bildkulturen im Dialog
Synergies in Visual Culture / Bildkulturen im Dialog, 2013
Medieval Worlds, 2019
A source which can be dated to c.730 has never been discussed as evidence of an early reception o... more A source which can be dated to c.730 has never been discussed as evidence of an early reception of Byzantine iconoclasm in Italy. Now lost, this was an inscription put up to celebrate the foundation of a church in the newly established royal residence of the Lombard king Liutprand (712-744) in the countryside of Pavia along the river Olona, known as Corteolona. The inscription tells us that in the time in which ›Caesar Leo fell into the pit of schism from the summit of righteousness persuaded by a miserable scholar‹, Liutprand dedicated a church to Saint Anastasius the Persian. Therefore, the inscription makes use of the perceived heterodoxy of the Byzantine ruler -his attitude towards sacred images -as a chronological and negative cultural reference. In the inscription, Liutprand is cast as a champion of the Catholic Church as opposed to the heterodox Leo III (717-741). This claim naturally had wider political implications: Liutprand wanted to be seen as the supreme ruler on the Italian peninsula. The inscription from Corteolona, with others from Pavia and its surroundings, was transcribed in the late eighth century and thus transmitted to posterity. Having often escaped the attention of those interested in the echoes of Byzantine iconoclasm outside Byzantium, its text is an important document since it suggests that in early eighth-century Lombard Italy, at least in some circles, it was believed that Emperor Leo III was acting against orthodoxy, and that this could potentially lead to a schism within the Catholic Church. In the same years, the early 730s, the papacy too reacted to rumours of heterodoxy in the east, specifically in Constantinople: both a letter by Pope Gregory III (731-741) and the Roman Liber Pontificalis attest to this.
Craft Production in Early Western Monasticism: Rules, Spaces, Products
The Spaces of Monastic Observance in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, 2011
... The whole of this corpus has recently been examined with an eye to understanding late antique... more ... The whole of this corpus has recently been examined with an eye to understanding late antique and early medieval economic thought, in spite of the long-standing view that these texts were not sufficiently 'technical' on economic subjects.10 A comparison of eastern and ...
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Videos by Francesca Dell'Acqua, Associate Prof., History of Medieval and Byzantine Art
Investigations undertaken at the church, funded by the British Academy, the Gerda Henkel Stiftung, the universities of Salerno and Birmingham, and facilitated by the Municipality of Montecorvino Rovella, indicate its clear links to the material culture of the secular courts and the monasteries in southern Langobardia in the late eighth and ninth centuries.
Papers by Francesca Dell'Acqua, Associate Prof., History of Medieval and Byzantine Art