Interscambi e circolarità di modelli: il caso delle pitture rupestri tardomedievali nel santuario micaelico alle Grottelle di Padula

Abstract

The recent restoration of the partially unpublished late medieval paintings in the sanctuary of San Michele in Padula has made it possible to examine pictorial texts and their context. These include isolated panels, devotional aedicules and altars painted in the core of the sanctuary and in the atrium, among them narrative scenes rich in lively stylistic and compositional solutions expressed through idioms of popular intonation. Although the hermitage, then sanctuary, represents an isolated place by definition, it reveals an inverse tendency towards openness, a nature that has proved particularly permeant to allogenic elements over the centuries. In this perspective, the paintings in question are interesting for a series of reflections, which concern interchanges and circulation of models. The final results of these analyses offer an authentic fragment regarding the figurative culture of the Regnum.

Keywords

• Angevin. Medieval painting. Naples. Padula. Pilgrimage