L’art roman en Lombardie. État des questions

Abstract

Romanesque art in Lombardy is striking for its lack of typological and technical uniformity, due to the use of a variety of materials : stone in the alpine and sub-alpine zones, brick (reused brick until the end of the 11th century) in the plain, in the south. The formulation in Lombardy of a new architectural style springs from a wider geographical and cultural context, that of the “first Romanesque art”. This architectural renewal is closely related to episcopal reform in the framework of the Ottonian and Salien Reichskirchensystem. The most emblematic figures are Aribert d’Intimiano for the diocese of Milan and the bishops of Brescia and Como, who remained faithful to the Empire. In the mid-11th century there are important experiments made in Santa Maria Maggiore at Lomello, in the baptistery of Galliano and in the San Sepulchro in Milan, both in the architectural conceptions and structural solutions (vaulting in stone, material division of bays, articulation of the supports). The unfortunate disappearance of many monuments in the second half of the 11th century prohibits a serial vision of the process that leads to the mature phase of Romanesque architecture at the end of the century, which coincides with the emergence of the Lombard communes. The most representative buildings, such as Sant’Ambrogio in Milan and San Michele Maggiore in Pavia, adopt tribunes with alternating supports and ribbed vaults, and monumental sculpture takes on unprecedented importance. At the same moment, reconstruction work begins on Cremona Cathedral, one of the most problematic Romanesque buildings in northern Italy, which is situated halfway between the Lombard world and the cathedrals in Po valley (Modena and Piacenza).