habitat rupestre.pdf - Società Friulana di Archeologia

PICTORIAL DECORATION OF RUPESTRIAN CHURCHES DURING THE BYZANTINE EMPIRECRHIMA-CINP projectFig. 15 Carpignano Salentino (Le), St. Marine and St.Christine, Saint Christine,Saint Nicholas and Saint Theodore.Fig. 16 Supersano (Le), Rupestrian church in Celimana, Saint Michael Syncellusand Andrew the Apostle.Benevento and in the Principate of Salerno. Campania had astrict contact with Rome, where the Byzantine elements wereless determining: the painted Michael the Archangel in therupestrian church of Saint Blaise (Castellamare di Stabia) doesnot wear the loros and the divetession 32 .There are many interesting decorations in the crypt of thechurch in Carpignano Salentino: for example, the one representingSaint Christine, Saint Nicholas and Saint Theodore,which could be Saint Theodore the Studite, died in 826, aboutof the famous Stoudios monastery in Costantinople, antagonistof the Iconoclasm- His monastic rules were adopted insome Byzantine monasteries of southern Italy and Sicily: inthe decoration, he has long beard and brown mantle, two peculiaritiesof the eastern monastic iconography.In Apulia, the Norman-Swabian and Angevin dominationswere not able to sever all the connections with the Greek communitiesand the relative churches, especially the Church ofConstantinople, as the many pictorial examples testify. A particularepisode is the rare iconography of Saint Michael Syncellusand Andrew the Apostle – patron saint of Constantinople– in the church of Celimanna (Supersano); this paintingwas realized between the end of the 12 th century and the firsthalf of the 13 th century.Saint Michael Syncellus (about 761– 846) is represented as aSaint Monk, according to his iconography. He wears a mantleon a tunic; he wears a scapular (anabolos), but not the kaukoullion(the monastic hood associated to the anabolos), hehas a small cross in the right hand and he leans on a tau cane 33 .Other coincidences with the rupestrian painting in Cappadociaare the fragments in an anonym crypt in the Riggio ravine(Grottaglie): the early layer of plaster in the apses is particularlycomparable to 10 th century paintings. The central apsecontains the fragments of a head and part of the hands of aPraying Virgin in an expansis manibus pose, which was usedin the Imperial Court of Constantinople after the Iconoclasm.It was impressed on a coin of Constantinople under Leo VI,before 908. The Theotokos will be impressed on coins againwith regularity only in the 11th century; the presence of thiscomposition on seals was regular after the restoration of thecult of images in 843 34 .The Praying Virgin in Grottaglie is flanked by two Saints;Saint Andrew, on the left, is similar to Saint in the same Cappadocianiconographies, as in the apse of the parecclesion inthe Eski Baca Kilisesi (Church of the Old Chimney), in theIhlara valley.The Praying Virgin among four Saints in Grottaglie was coveredprobably in the 11 th century. The second layer of plasterwas painted with a Virgin with the Archangels, which is alsovery fragmented.A Déesis was frescoed on the first layer of plaster in the leftapse; it may be the most ancient Déesis of southern Italy. Thehead of the Virgin is still visible: her hairs are covered by amaphorion with geometric folds, and her eyes are wide open.Seven Saints Bishops holding books, as in the rupestrianchurches of Cappadocia (for example, in the apse of the churchn° 3 in Güllü Dere, painted in the 10 th century).In the second half of the 10 th century, the inferior parts of theapse were decorated, and in the 9 th century the Virgin wasframed, as in the Direkli Kilise (Belisisirma), in the EskiGümüş Monastery or in the A Church in Tatlarin.volumeRicerca_OK_2012-11-15.indd 70 16/11/2012 15:01:26