Studi Veronesi (Nov 2017)
The fragmentary wall paintings of the church of San Zeno in Bardolino: iconography and execution phases
Abstract
The church of San Zeno in Bardolino maintains a basically intact early medieval setting: the mural decoration, very fragmentary and constituted by at least two execution phases, has so far been subject to partial analysis. This essay aims to fill the critical gap by first cataloging the painted fragments and identifying, wherever possible, the iconographic subject and belonging to one or another stage of the construction site. Crossing off the restoration data and the few archival sources, with the stylistic and stratigraphical analysis of the plasterwork, two distinct decorative moments were rebuilt: one of the Carolingian era, which was to affect the entire wall surface of the church and of which there are few but exceptional fragments (including a rare sinopia), the other to be dated to 14th century and totally unpublished. The study found that the most ancient paintings of Bardolino show remarkable analogies with a series of examples connecting Northern Italy to Langobardia minor, within the same figurative horizon of the first half of the 9th century; closer stylistic affinities, however, are noticed with the figures of the two carolingian layers in the northern apse of the basilica of San Zeno in Verona, confirming a surprisingly homogeneous artistic production in the Veronese area.
