Målningarna i Castelseprio

Abstract

Summary In the course of a general presentation of the fresco cycle of S. Maria di Castelseprio, its iconography and style, the author arrives at a precarolingian date for the frescoes (most reasonably 7th century, or the beginning of the 8th). After the discovery of the sinopia for a Flight into Egypt (Fig. 19) at S. Salvatore in Brescia, which presupposes the existence in Lombardy of a narrative art of Castelseprio's kind before the end of the 8th century, the arguments in favour of a later date have lost much of their weight. Most writers seem to agree that the painter must have come from the Byzantine East. Indeed, the art of Castelseprio is so imbued with the spirit of Byzantine art, that we cannot account for its presence in Lombardy without assuming a relationship with the Byzantine world. The painter may have been a Greek, but this does not imply that his presence in Lombardy was an isolated phenomenon. As the sinopia in Brescia and the murals in Müstair, Switzerland, reveal by their borrowings, there must have existed several, not to say numerous fresco cycles of Castelseprio's kind in Lombardy. That Castelseprio alone would have exerted such a wide influence is ruled out by both the remoteness of the place and the paintings’ obscure location in an apse, from where they were hardly visible to the laity. The narrow arch in front of the apse is of a kind which we know of only from the 6th and 7th centuries at the latest (Figs. 12–15), and therefore it seems likely that the erection of the church antedates the 8th century. Owing to the fact that the frescoes are on the original coating without traces of paint underneath, there is reason to believe that the paintings were executed soon after the erection of the building. A date before the end of the 7th century seems therefore plausible. Considering a later date, one may contemplate the fact that iconoclasm came into force in 726—what became of all the jobless painters in the East? A very early date (6th century, as asserted by Verzone 1967 and 1973) does not seem acceptable, however, without certain reservations. The transverse clavi of St. Joseph and the angels and the translucent cross halo of the Christ Child are features, which (as pointed out by Schapiro 1952, 1957) occur rather similarly in Carolingian art, whereas earlier known specimens remain conjectural. Since both features seem to have a North Italian origin, we may, nevertheless, assume that they occurred in Lombardy already some time before. As for the translucency of the halo, it must from the beginning have had a christological significance, probably as an expression of the predominantly human nature of the Christ Child, in accession to the Arianic creed of the Ostrogoths and Lombards. Capitani d'Arzago's conclusion (1948) that the painter came from the Syrian‐Palestinian East has been questioned by several writers, who would prefer to consider Castelseprio as a direct manifestation of Constantinopolitan art. The recent discovery in Istanbul of a comparable mosaic of the 7th century (Fig. 21) discloses, however, that the artistical level was not throughout as high as one may have expected from preiconoclastic Constantinople. Castelseprio will no doubt continue to puzzle our minds by its unprecedented qualities. Perhaps only some of the early Sinai icons (Figs. 24, 26) may be mentioned as comparable achievements, and for stylistical reasons, too, the fresco of the Maccabees at S. Maria Antiqua in Rome (Fig. 25)—to say nothing of the sinopia at Brescia which, of course, presupposes an imagery of Castelseprio's kind.