Echoes of Milan in ninth-century Langobardia Minor? Preliminary findings on the painted programme of Sant'Ambrogio alla Rienna, Montecorvino Rovella (Salerno)
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Convivium. Exchanges and Interactions in the Arts of Medieval Europe, Byzantium, and Mediterranean |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/137830 |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.1484/J.CONVIVIUM.4.2018012 |
| Field | Art, architecture, cultural heritage |
| Keywords | early medieval painting; Lombardy; Ambrose of Milan; Theotokos; Byzantine Iconoclasm; Lombard-Carolingian politics |
| Description | Thanks to new material analysis and archaeological investigation, still in progress, the rural church of S. Ambrogio alla Rienna in the countryside of Salerno (southern Italy) is revealing crucial information about cultural coexistence between Lombards and Franks. Its mid-ninth century mural paintings, whose quality is outstanding in the early medieval period, can be used as to highlight political and theological disputes, as well as ethnic identities, and economic and social dynamics of their period. In the eighth–ninth centuries the area was part of the Duchy then Principality of Benevento and Salerno. The church was at the centre of a network of landholdings belonging to the powerful monastery of S. Vincenzo al Volturno. What remains of the original painted programme suggests a wealthy patronage in close connection on the one hand with the culture of the Lombard courts and main monasteries, on the other with Carolingian politics in northern Lombardy. |