The gilded silver staurotheke from the Treasury of St. Euphemia in Grado has been generally considered in scholarship to be a product of the Byzantine workshops of the early 7th century. Tradition has associated its arrival in the city on the Adriatic with the donation made by Emperor Heraclius (610-641) to the Grado patriarch Primigenius. While its provenance from the Byzantine East is indisputable, its chronological attribution must be reconsidered based on stylistic (as far as possible, given the object’s poor state of preservation), typological, palaeographical and documentary considerations. A new investigation of medieval and modern archival sources, graphic evidence, and models is hereby conducted in order to reconstruct the possible primitive form of the reliquary and the arrangement of its precious contents. More broadly, this article aims to explore the cultural and artistic relations between Byzantium and Italy in the Middle Ages, through the events that tied the Patriarchate of Grado to Venice and the Eastern Mediterranean.
La stauroteca d’argento dorato del Tesoro di S. Eufemia a Grado è stata generalmente considerata nella storia degli studi come un prodotto delle officine bizantine dell’inizio del VII secolo. La tradizione ha collegato il suo arrivo nella città adriatica alla donazione fatta dall’imperatore Eraclio (610-641) al patriarca gradese Primigenio. Mentre la provenienza dall’Oriente bizantino è indiscutibile, l’attribuzione cronologica deve essere ripensata sulla base di considerazioni stilistiche (per quanto possibile, dato il precario stato di conservazione dell’oggetto), tipologiche, paleografiche e documentarie. Viene qui condotta una nuova disamina delle fonti archivistiche di età medievale e moderna, delle testimonianze grafiche e dei modelli di riferimento per ricostruire la possibile forma originaria del reliquiario e la sistemazione del suo prezioso contenuto. Su un piano più ampio, questo articolo mira a esaminare i rapporti culturali e artistici tra Bisanzio e l’Italia nel Medioevo, attraverso le vicende che legarono il patriarcato di Grado a Venezia e al Mediterraneo orientale.
Bevilacqua, L. (2023). Venerare la Vera Croce: osservazioni sulla stauroteca bizantina di Grado. ARTE MEDIEVALE, IV ser. 13, 9-24.
Venerare la Vera Croce: osservazioni sulla stauroteca bizantina di Grado
Livia Bevilacqua
2023-01-01
Abstract
The gilded silver staurotheke from the Treasury of St. Euphemia in Grado has been generally considered in scholarship to be a product of the Byzantine workshops of the early 7th century. Tradition has associated its arrival in the city on the Adriatic with the donation made by Emperor Heraclius (610-641) to the Grado patriarch Primigenius. While its provenance from the Byzantine East is indisputable, its chronological attribution must be reconsidered based on stylistic (as far as possible, given the object’s poor state of preservation), typological, palaeographical and documentary considerations. A new investigation of medieval and modern archival sources, graphic evidence, and models is hereby conducted in order to reconstruct the possible primitive form of the reliquary and the arrangement of its precious contents. More broadly, this article aims to explore the cultural and artistic relations between Byzantium and Italy in the Middle Ages, through the events that tied the Patriarchate of Grado to Venice and the Eastern Mediterranean.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.