reviews reviews La chiesa di San Menna a Sant’Agata de' Goti (Atti del convegno di studi, 19 giugno 2010) a cura di Franco Iannotta, Salerno: Arci Postiglione, 2014

Nino Zchomelidse, Art, Ritual and Civic Identity in Medieval Southern Italy University Park (Pennsylvania): The Pennsyl­ vania State University Press, 2014

Elisabetta Scirocco

Published within months of each other in 2014, of Sant’Agata (between Caserta and Benevento), these two volumes will represent a solid point of which is well-known to scholars and is one of a reference for the study of the medieval production family of buildings that are traditionally deemed of art in Southern Italy. Specifically, they explore to have derived from the model of the basilica of a geographical area corresponding more or less San Benedetto at Montecassino, rebuilt by Abbot to the region of Campania today, with a focus Desiderius between 1066 and 1071 and, after an on the eleventh and twelfth century. The artis- alternating series of events, destroyed during the tic and monumental heritage of Southern Italy, Second World War 2. This affinity between Mon- a region thrusting into the Mediterranean and tecassino and the later (by thirty years) church conquered in turn by the Longobards, Byzantines, of San Menna is supposedly proven by the ar- Normans, Swabians and Angevins, has been the chitectural configuration and examples of litur- focus of specialised study since the systematic gical furnishings within the church, which are explorations of Heinrich Wilhelm Schulz, Deme- some of the oldest and best preserved of Southern trio Salazaro and Émile Bertaux, and can boast Italy and rightly receive special attention in the an extensive bibliography, especially from the book. The second volume under examination here, late twentieth century. Some authoritative stud- Art, Ritual and Civic Identity in Southern Italy by ies have tackled the most important issues in the Nino Zchomelidse /Fig. 2/, Professor of Art History art-historical field: the question of local “schools”, at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore), is specif- the circulation of workshops and models, reasons ically dedicated to liturgical furnishings, a type underlying commissions, and the reconstruction of artistic object that is peculiar to and very com- of works of art and monuments with associated mon throughout Romanesque Campania. This is issues of iconography and style 1. In different ways, a subject that has as yet been little studied, given the two books being reviewed here offer signifi- that works such as ambos and monumental Easter cant contributions to this complex and multi-fac- candlesticks have largely been examined – apart eted historiographic picture. from a few exceptions and in relatively recent La chiesa di San Menna a Sant’Agata de' Goti, edit- years – more for their intrinsic artistic qualities ed by Franco Iannotta /Fig. 1/, provides a compre- than for the ritual function of which they are the 156 hensive study of this church located in the village expression3. As can already be discerned, the two reviews 1 Heinrich Wilhelm Schulz, Denkmaeler der Kunst des Mittelalters in Unteritalien, nach dem Tode des Verfassers herausgegeben von Ferdinand von Quast, 5 vols, Dresden 1860; Émile Bertaux, L’art dans l’Italie méridionale, 3 vols, Rome 1903 –1905 (see also: L’art dans l’Italie méri- dionale. Aggiornamento dell’opera di Émile Bertaux sotto la direzione di Adriano Prandi, 4 vols, Rome 1978); Demetrio Salazaro, Studi sui monumenti della Italia meridionale dal iv al xiii secolo, 2 vols, Napoli 1871–1877; Lorenza Cochetti Pratesi, “In margine ad alcuni recenti studi sulla scultura medievale nell’Italia meridionale”, Commentari, xvi (1965), pp. 186 –203; Eadem, “In margine ad alcuni recenti studi sulla scultura medievale nell’Italia meridionale”, Commentari, n. s., xviii (1967), pp. 126 –150; Eadem, “In margine ad alcuni recenti studi sulla scultura medievale nell’Italia meridionale. ii. Sui rapporti tra la scultura campana e quella siciliana nel xii secolo”, Commentari, xix (1968), pp. 165 –196; Eadem, “In margine ad alcuni recenti studi sulla scultura medievale nell’Italia meridionale. iii. Sui rapporti tra la scultura campana e quella siciliana”, Commentari, xxi (1970), pp. 255 –290; Francesco Aceto, “I pulpiti di Salerno e la scultura roma- 1 / The church nica della Costiera d’Amalfi”,Napoli Nobilissima, n. s., xviii/5 (1979), of San Menna at pp. 169 –194; Mario D’Onofrio, Valentino Pace, La Campania, (Italia Sant’Agata de’ Goti, Romanica, iv), Milan 1981; Dorothy F. Glass, Romanesque sculpture in Campania. Patrons, programs, and style, Philadelphia 1991; Francesco book cover Gandolfo, La scultura normanno - sveva in Campania: botteghe e modelli, 2 / Art, Ritual and Bari 1999; Manuela Gianandrea, La scena del sacro. L’arredo liturgico Civic Identity in nel basso Lazio tra xi e xiv secolo, Rome 2006; Valentino Pace, Arte medievale in Italia meridionale. 1. La Campania, Naples 2007 [collection Southern Italy, of studies 1975 – 2003]. book cover 2 In substance, there are two monographic studies dedicated to San Menna: Luigi Cielo, Monumenti romanici a Sant’Agata de’ Goti : il duo- mo e la chiesa di San Menna, Rome 1980, and La chiesa di San Menna in Sant’Agata de’ Goti. Icona di storia e di arte, Franco Iannotta ed., Cava volumes are different in approach, genesis and dei Tirreni 2005, in which the essay by the editor is to be noted as it configuration; reading them together is a useful anticipates some of the conclusions about the historic and archaeo- logical details presented in the new volume ( Iannotta, “Nove secoli exercise for highlighting the benefits of two differ- di storia”, Ibidem, pp. 7– 23). 3 Liturgical furnishings as a subject worthy of specific study was the ent perspectives in the study of the monumental topic of the unpublished thesis by Anna Carotti,La suppellettile sacra contexts and their furnishings: a monographic e l’arte dell’intarsio in Campania dall’xi al xiii secolo, university thesis (Università degli Studi di Roma, supervisor : Géza de Francovich), one, dedicated specifically to the church of San Rome 1966 –1967. Carotti returned to the subject in her contribution Menna, offering an in-depth study of the overall to L'Art dans l’Italie méridionale. Aggiornamento (n. 1). The work of Dorothy Glass on Romanesque sculpture in Campania marked architectural group, its history, its significance and the first methodological opening towards a combined analysis of its different components; and a broader, transverse both the formal and functional aspects: see Dorothy F. Glass, “Jonah in Campania: A Late Antique Revival”, Commentari, xxvii (1976), one, dedicated to the study of the principle types of pp. 179 –193; Eadem, “Pseudo -Augustine, Prophets, and Pulpits in liturgical object distributed in a territory through Campania”, dop, il (1987), pp. 215 – 226; Eadem, Romanesque Sculpture in Campania (n. 1), sp. Chapter Seven (“ The Liturgical Programs”). an examination of exemplary monuments. Manuela Gianandrea was instead responsible for the first mono- graphic study of liturgical furnishings in the border area between today’s Lazio and Campania regions: Manuela Gianandrea, La scena 1. La chiesa di San Menna a Sant’Agata de’ Goti del sacro (n. 1). I dedicated my PhD thesis to the liturgical arrange- ment of some major cathedrals in Campania: Elisabetta Scirocco, collects the results of the conference of the same Arredi liturgici dei secoli xi –xiii in Campania: le cattedrali di Salerno, name held on the occasion of the ninth cente­ Ravello, Amalfi, Capua, Caserta Vecchia, PhD thesis (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico ii, supervisor : Francesco Aceto), Naples nary of the church’s foundation (1110 – 2010), and 2010, to be published. See also: Elisabetta Scirocco, “L’arredo litur- is published under the aegis of the Diocese of gico della Santissima Trinità di Cava tra xi e xii secolo”, in Riforma della Chiesa, esperienze monastiche e poteri locali. La Badia di Cava e le Cerreto Sannita – Telese – Sant’Agata de’ Goti and sue dipendenze nel Mezzogiorno nei secoli xi–xii, proceedings of the conference (Cava dei Tirreni, 2011), Maria Galante, Giovanni Vitolo, edited by don Franco Iannotta, the church’s priest Giuseppa Zanichelli eds, Florence 2014, pp. 289–302; Elisabetta and passionate scholar of its history. The vol- Scirocco, “Jonah, the Whale and the Ambo. Image and Liturgy in Medieval Campania”, in The Antique Memory and the Middle Ages, ume rounds off a collective scientific undertak- Ivan Foletti, Zuzana Frantová eds, Rome 2015, pp. 87–123; Ruggero ing launched in 2009 thanks to the initiative and Longo, Elisabetta Scirocco, “Sul contesto originario degli avori: gli arredi liturgici della cattedrale salernitana in epoca normanna”, in researches of Ruggero Longo (Università della Gli avori medievali di Amalfi e Salerno. Quaderni del Centro di Cultu- Tuscia) 4, with the support of the local Curia and ra e Storia Amalfitana 8 – Opere e Territorio : Vademecum 1, Francesca Dell’Acqua, Almerinda Cupolo, Pietro Pirrone eds, Amalfi 2015, the involvement of specialists from the universi- pp. 169 –188. ties of Roma La Sapienza, Salerno, Napoli Secon- 4 Ruggero Longo, L’opus sectile medievale in Sicilia e nel meridione nor- manno, PhD thesis (Università della Tuscia, supervisor : Maria An- da Università, and Pisa. daloro), Viterbo 2009. 157 reviews The volume is divided into three parts: the first analysis (Chiara Lambert, Carmine Lubritto and is dedicated to the historical background of the cult Paola Ricci) and a photographic paleoanthropo- of Saint Mennas, a hermit who lived in Samnium logical examination of the items (Gino Fornaciari in the sixth century, and of the foundation of the and Simona Minozzi). church re-dedicated to him within the domain of The main analysis of the monument begins Sant’Agata; the bulk of the volume is given over to with an essay by Ruggero Longo and Giuseppe a careful analysis of the building and its decora- Romagnoli. They offer a presentation of the build- tion; the final section comprises an appendix with ing, with a critical appraisal of the events leading hitherto unpublished archive material. to its foundation, its actual history and historio- The opening paper is a biographical essay graphic development, before introducing the new on Pope Paschal ii (1099 – 1118), who consecrated aspects to emerge from this study, comprising the church of San Menna on 4 September 1110. the latest acquisitions concerning the original The event offers Claudio Azzara the opportuni- architecture and the rediscovery of part of the ty to contextualise the pontificate of Paschal ii building’s furnishings / F i g . 3 /. Thanks to a new within the setting of the crisis between Papacy campaign of surveys, it has been possible to verify and Holy Roman Empire, which began with the the original existence of two side entrances, and well-known disputes between Gregory vii and advance the plausible hypothesis of a prothyron at Henry iv. Amalia Galdi examines the circum- the main entrance in place of the current porch. stances of the arrival of the cult of Saint Mennas The gathering of stone fragments from the gar- in Sant’Agata, positioning it against the backdrop den in front of the church has made possible two of the relations between the Norman authorities important recoveries: the Late Antique sarcoph- and the dioceses in their territories. From her agus for a child used for the above-mentioned analysis of the Vita and of the Translatio sancti relics, and the altar that conserved them, which Mennatis written by Leo of Ostia (the famous was dismantled after 1960 and is one of the few chronicler monk of Montecassino) emerges the Romanesque main altars in Campania which can unscrupulous (and fairly common) political use be reconstructed with precision in terms of size, of relics by the Norman Robert, count of Alife, form and materials. The two scholars present new Caiazzo and Sant’Agata: after removing them 3 / View of the floor and furnishings from from their original resting place and placing above Sant’Agata them in the cathedral of Caiazzo which he had de’ Goti, interior, founded, he subsequently decided to have them church of San Menna taken to his palatine chapel, dedicated to Saint Peter, which must already have been built be- tween 1102 and 1107. The church preserves three exceptional inscriptions (c. 1102 –1110) of different type and function, which are skillfully analysed by Chiara Lambert: the titulus on the architrave of the entrance commemorating the patron and the earlier dedication of the church to Saint Peter, a charta lapidaria attesting to the papal consecra- tion, and a double-sided marble slab from a rel- iquary urn that used to contain the remains of two martyrs, Brice of Tours and an anonymous companion (Socius), to which the relics of Mennas were later added. A series of three brief studies is dedicated specifically to these relics: the history of the examination of them after their rediscovery 158 in 1674 (Franco Iannotta), a radiocarbon dating plans and sections of the church and the first of the ambo on the left side of the choir 6, and the reviews orthophotograph of the floor, to which Longo confirmation that San Menna provides one of the dedicates a detailed separate paper, accompa- first examples of opus sectile on vertical surfaces, nied by useful tables cataloguing the marbles adapting a technique from the floor for the enclos- used and the models of the decoration. On the ing panels. Guided by Longo and Gianandrea in basis of a historical, technical and formal analysis the observation of the perfect dialogue between that takes in a series of contemporary examples, floor and choir screen, of the decorative patterns this study emphasises the value of the opus sec- and means of execution, one cannot but agree tile floor of San Menna, which is exceptional for with their conclusion that the decorated floor its size (260 square metres), condition and high and the liturgical furnishings were conceived as intrinsic quality, revealing the work of highly a single whole and that this should be dated to no specialised craftsmen, who perhaps had trained later than the first decade of the twelfth century. at Montecassino. As already sensed on a formal Patrizio Pensabene and Francesco Gandolfo basis by Bertaux, the floor of San Menna is closely tackle the theme of re-use and of the relation- associated with Montecassino, but according to ship with antiquities at Sant’Agata de’ Goti (at Longo it is innovative in execution, documenting San Menna, in the Cathedral, at Sant’Angelo de the launch of a “Latin” development of marble Munculanis), offering some interesting consider- intarsia techniques in Southern Italy. The results ations of methods to evaluate the “sensitivity to of the mineralogical and petrographic analyses the classical ” of medieval builders and craftsmen. of the tesserae are also published here (Ruggero In examining the work of sculptors working at Longo and Renato Giarrusso) 5. San Menna, Gandolfo highlights two peculiar- The layout of the decoration on the floor pro- ities of this site: on the one hand the utilitarian vides information also about the morphology requirements that led to antique pieces being and division of the sacred spaces for which it mixed with early medieval ones, while other pro­vided the paving. This method highlighted in items were made ad hoc by the early twelfth-cen- the above paper is also employed in the following tury sculptors who drew inspiration from the piece by Manuela Gianandrea. Effecting a close classical models before their eyes; and on the examination of the original materials of the litur­ other hand, the programmatic desire expressed gical­ space in situ (specifically, the floor and some through the arrangement of the antique and me- perimeter plutei), of the architectural spaces and dieval capitals to create a system of references archival documentation, the scholar confirms between them. For his part, Pensabene presents and provides a solid basis for a hypothetical re- a generous and extremely useful systematic construction of the choir of San Menna, which had hitherto only been sketched out in studies; 5 San Menna shows no use of the artificial stone stracotto( ) used by artisans in Southern Italy (in Sant’Agata de’ Goti too, but later, namely that the enclosure, of which the frontal in the Duomo) to replace the rarer palombino; in this regard, see screens at the centre of the middle nave of the Ruggero Longo, Renato Giarrusso, “L’impiego del palombino e del litotipo artificiale stracotto nell’opus sectile del Meridione norman- church survive, used to continue in line with the no”, in Atti delxvi colloquio dell’Associazione Italiana per lo Studio e la columns on the left and right sides of the choir. Conservazione del Mosaico, proceedings of the conference (Palermo/ Piazza Armerina, 17–19 March 2010), Claudia Angelelli ed., Tivoli Moreover, that there used to be a pergula in the 2011, pp. 315 – 328. 6 That is, in conformity with the correct liturgical orientation as set front, over the surviving plutei, formed of small out in the pre -Tridentine Roman rite, a fact usually overlooked in columns supporting an architrave. The picture the reconstruction of liturgical contexts. See the seminal studies by Sible de Blaauw, Cultus et decor. Liturgia e architettura nella Roma of San Menna's ritual space as reconstructed by tardoantica e medievale, 2 vols, Vatican City 1994; Idem, “Innovazioni Gianandrea on the basis of this examination and nello spazio di culto fra basso Medioevo e Cinquecento: la perdita dell'orientamento liturgico e la liberazione della navata”, in Lo surviving documents is convincing and full of Spazio e il culto. Relazioni tra edificio ecclesiale e uso liturgico nel xv e new aspects: the reconstruction of the spaces and xvi secolo, proceedings of the conference (Florence, 27–28 March 2003), Jörg Stabenow ed., Venice 2006, pp. 25 – 51; Idem, “In vista enclosures of the presbytery and the three apses, della luce: un principio dimenticato nell’orientamento dell’edificio the probability that the lateral choir screens were di culto paleocristiano”, in Arte medievale: le vie dello spazio liturgico, Paolo Piva ed., Milan 2010, pp. 15 – 45. On Campanian ambos, see: made of masonry and not marble, the positioning Scirocco, “Jonah, the Whale and the Ambo” (n. 1), sp. pp. 111–117. 159 reviews study of the recycled antique elements in the to be made of this publication, which rightly aims three above-mentioned buildings, with particular to be a point of reference in future years not only attention to transformations, re-workings and for the building under examination but also for the way they were re-assembled. What emerges the study of similar monuments throughout me- is an overview of the practices in these medi- dieval Campania. eval sites, in which a tried-and-tested of using recycled column bases and shafts together with 2. In Art, Ritual and Civic Identity in Southern (antique and medieval) capitals created a general Italy Nino Zchomelidse, already known for some impression of a uniform architecture, while the important contributions on the relationship be- procedure for building the architectural spaces tween art and liturgy7, returns to her Habilitations­ was empirical in approach, based on a design schrift, dedicating the first systematic study to that was merely sketched out. The art-historical some artworks associated with Campania (but section concludes with a study of the fragmentary with incursions into Apulia and Sicily), and pictorial decoration of San Menna by Francesca paying particular attention to their use in ritual Romana Moretti. Basing her survey on archive practice. The chronological limits of her study documents and a careful examination of the sur- are the late tenth century, when the first liturgi- viving painting, the scholar advances some sug- cal scrolls she examines were made, to the early gestions for a reconstruction and dating (from the thirteenth century, which saw the making of the time of construction to the fourteenth century), Easter candlestick of Gaeta. The presentation of making comparisons with examples preserved in the material generally follows a chronological the Roman and Campanian regions. The volume order to highlight how an understanding of the closes with an appendix of documents taken from liturgical furnishings and layout must take into the Archivio Storico Diocesano of Sant’Agata de’ account the evolution of the ritual requirements Goti, edited by Antonio Abbatiello and Franco of the society producing them. The central fo- Iannotta, with the excerpta from the accounts of cus of the analysis, developed over six chapters the pastoral visits concerning San Menna and the and an epilogue, is provided by the elements transcription of the report on the process for the within the screen of the choir that make up the recognition of the relics in 1704 – 1705. principal liturgical focus after the main altar: the La chiesa di San Menna a Sant’Agata de’ Goti of- ambo above all, used during the Liturgy of the fers real progress in the historical and art-histor- Word, and two objects linked specifically to the ical studies of Campania and the Mezzogiorno of Easter liturgy: the monumental candlestick and the Middle Ages. The principal merit to attribute the liturgical scroll containing the hymn for Holy to its promoters is that of having planned a team Saturday, the Exultet. Zchomelidse’s liturgical and project in which the investigation into artistic ritual analysis focuses principally on the culmi- matters is conducted in synergy with historical, nating moment of the Christian year. Basing on archival and scientific research; this process is the materials and the historic data, she effects a probably what accounts for the long time it has reconstruction of the relationship between the required for publication, but it also guarantees monumental furnishings and the collective rit- long-lasting results. It is a pity that in the page lay- ual of the celebration, and thus of the different out not enough thought has been given to high- possible forms of interaction between furnish- lighting plans and reconstructions, perhaps with ing, images and ritual movement: in the author’s a section apart that could be easily consulted: in intentions, with which I agree, this is the only some cases, these almost disappear in the midst of possible approach for sensing the raison d’être of the iconographic apparatus which is instead rich these artistic products and their decoration. and up-to-date, and mostly in colour. It would From the outset, the author offers the reader also have been to the reader’s benefit to have cre- an evocative description of the liturgy opening ated a single comprehensive bibliography. When the Easter vigil in which, in the semi-darkness 160 all is said and done, these are the only criticisms of a church, the deacon from the height of the ambo lights the Easter candle on the candlestick of resurrection, and on the ambos with two reviews and unrolls the parchment containing the staircases in Campania, he was effectively as- Exultet hymn. This is followed by a historic similated with Christ, who on Easter Day rises appraisal of the shift in Campania from the Am- from the sepulchre, alluded to by the niche be- brosian-Beneventan rite to the Roman one, which neath the ambo. At Easter, this message reached was only fully concluded in the thirteenth centu- its sacred and scenographic culmination, thanks ry; a change that intertwines with the change in also to the use of the liturgical scrolls examined domination from the Longobards to the Normans, by the author in the second chapter. We can add who unified the south into the Regnum Sicilae be- to the author’s “Easter” argument that this theme fore ceding it to the Hohenstaufen and Anjou was intrinsically linked to the very nature of the households. The extensive production of monu- monument, in an even more refined symbolic mental liturgical furnishings in the South, and es- sense: the message of death and resurrection was pecially in Campania (the veritable geographical stressed in the contemplation of the two scenes centre of this study), seems to accord very closely of the monument and of the “sepulchre” beneath with this political and religious setting. One of the it framed by two peacocks, and was also revived book’s underlying theses is that the communities on several occasions throughout the liturgical of Southern Italy used local ritual traditions and year, during Mass, when the Word of God read the decoration of the liturgical furnishings as a by the deacon on the ambo renewed the prom- tool for affirmation of identity and the expression ise of salvation offered through the sacrifice of of a political ideology. This is a hypothesis that Christ, as symbolised by the Eucharistic celebra- is convincing in the case of the monuments con- tion at the altar 9. sidered in the second part of the book: the ambo In the second chapter, as already mentioned, of the Rufolo family at Ravello, the problematic Zchomelidse examines the Exultet rolls : long historiated panels in Naples’ cathedral, and the parchment scrolls with text and images accom- candlestick of the cathedral of Gaeta. panying the Easter hymn from the top of the The first four chapters analyse the nucleus ambo. After the eleventh century, the images formed by the ambo, liturgical scroll and can- were painted in reverse in comparison to the dlestick as the expression of the mystery of the text: a fact that suggests at least a desire to render Resurrection of Christ, celebrated during Easter. the images legible to those participating in the The ambo, which from its earliest monumental celebration, while the deacon read the text on forms in the Byzantine world sought to allude the scroll. Scholars have been divided for years to Christ’s tomb, occupies the principal position as to their effectivity legibility, a few metres off in this discussion. Chapter 1 offers an interesting the ground and with a lighting which we may excursus into the origins of these furnishings in suppose to have been poor. However, it should the Mediterranean area and discusses the old- perhaps be considered that the presence and a min- est southern Italian example conserved whole, imum visibility of the images (colored and with the ambo donated to the cathedral of Ravello abundant gold) might be considered sufficient to by Bishop Costantino Rogadeo (1094–1150). The convey the message for the clergy admitted into two parapets on the stairs reveal a scene that 7 Nino M. Zchomelidse, “Der Osterleuchter im Dom von Capua: commonly appears on ambos in the Campania Kirchenmobiliar und Liturgie im lokalen Kontext”, in Arte, archi- region from the ninth century onwards: Jonah tettura e rituale in Italia 1000 –1800, (Mededelingen van het Nederlands Instituut te Rome, lv, 1996), Sible de Blaauw, Bram Kempers eds, As- swallowed by the whale and cast out again by the sen 1997, pp. 18 – 43; Eadem, “Amore Virginis und honore patriae – Die marine monster. The author provides a detailed Rufolo Kanzel im Dom von Ravello”, Analecta Romana Instituti Danici, xxvi (1999), pp. 99 –117; Eadem, “Descending word and re- analysis of this ambo and its iconography, empha- surrecting Christ: moving images in illuminated liturgical scrolls of sising the theological aspects that led to the adop- Southern Italy”, in Meaning in Motion. The Semantics of Movement in Medieval Art, Nino M. Zchomelidse, Giovanni Freni eds, Princeton 8 tion of the story on ambos in the Beneventan rite . 2011, pp. 3 – 34. From the earliest expressions of Christian 8 Attributed to the Beneventan liturgy already by Glass, “Jonah in Campania” (n. 3). art, Jonah was a polysemous symbol for hope 9 Scirocco, “Jonah, the Whale and the Ambo” (n. 3). 161 reviews

the space in front of the ambo, who would have of the relationship between text and image, the been well aware of the contents of the hymn. In ritual interaction between liturgical scroll and this chapter, the author tackles the main examples ambo, and the symbolic value of these “moving of surviving liturgical scrolls from differentscrip - images” for alluding to the Word of God descend- 162 toria and churches, offering an analytical study ing among mankind. The following chapter (the third) closes the also others derived from the Beneventan liturgical reviews section on the ambo and moves the chronology practice (chapter 4), as already shown in the past forward. In the cathedral of Salerno, during the by the same author 12. It is during this phase that years of Bishop Romualdo ii Guarna (1153 – 1180), lay patrons appear on the scene, such as the Rufolo a change in setting occurred with regard to the from Ravello, with sufficient influence to commis- liturgy celebrated at the ambo: here, it was organ- sion a new ambo (and the ciborium on the main ised on two monumental platforms in the form altar) for the cathedral, which was to serve also of a box on columns set one in front of the other. as family sepulchral chapel, a place in which to The genesis of this system with two ambos is at- display its coats of arms, include a long dedicatory tributed by the author to a liturgical revolution epigraph of a dynastic bent and perhaps even some that led the local Church to conform to the ritual portraits of its members. Zchomelidse has offered a use of churches in Rome involved in papal cel- highly convincing thesis that the fine portrait of a ebrations. Here, at the beginning of the twelfth crowned woman called “Sigelgaita Rufolo”, known century, an architectural layout with two ambos from sixteenth-century documents to have been to the right and left of the choir enclosure had located over the pulpit, could be a symbolic depic- developed, each with its own form and function: tion of the Ecclesia Ravellensis (chapter 5) 13. one for the Epistles and the other for the Gos- The last two chapters (the sixth and the epilogue) pels. That such a distinct function was planned instead turn to the narrative cycles dedi­cated to lo- for the ambos of Salerno is difficult to prove in cal saints, bishops and martyrs whose relics were virtue of the iconographic aspects and liturgical the foundations for the dioceses of Naples and orientation, but they were both used with different Gaeta. In the case of Naples, there are two marble roles in the Easter feasts, as documented by the panels in Santa Restituta, the city’s former cathe- Salernitan liturgical manuscripts ( thirteenth to dral; these depict numerous little scenes flanked fifteenth century) published here for the first time by the story of Joseph, the passion of Ianuarius, the by Nino Zchomelidse who, on the basis of these story of Samson and four holy knights. The author documents, reconstructs a fascinating picture of discusses their symbolic purpose and figurative the Salernitan rite. At all events, even if the differ- sources, proposing a reconstruction in the form of ences in style, decoration and typology of the two an ambo that is a plausible alternative to the sug- ambos noted by other scholars leave some doubts gestions made hitherto 14. The early thirteenth-cen- as to whether they were perfectly contemporary tury column-candlestick in the cathedral of Gaeta or not 10, or whether there was an “unexpected” ar- Ambo, San rival of a new architectural model and of masters 10 Dorothy F. Glass, “The pulpits in the Cathedral at Salerno”, in 4 / Giovanni del Toro, 11 Salerno nel xii secolo: istituzioni, società, cultura, proceedings of the from Sicily , we cannot but agree with the author conference (Raito di Vietri sul Mare 16 – 20 June 1999), Paolo Delogu, Ravello that the operation must have had the approval of Paolo Peduto eds, Salerno 2004, pp. 213 – 237; Laurence Aventin, “L’image au lieu de la liturgie: le décor du pupitre de l’Évangile de or was even directed by Archbishop Romualdo ii l’ambon d’Aiello dans la cathédrale de Salerne (Campanie, dernier Guarna ( † 1180 ), author of a (“Roman”?) liturgical quart du xii e siècle) et ses principales variantes”, in Vie active et vie contemplative au Moyen Age et au seuil de la Renaissance, proceedings reform, as recorded in Salernitan sources. of the conference (Rome, 5 December 2003), Christian Trottmann This shift towards the Roman liturgy underlies ed., Rome 2005, pp. 323 – 352; Elisabetta Scirocco, “The Liturgical Installations in the Salerno Cathedral: The Double Ambo in its the examples studied in the second part of the book Regional Context Between Sicilian Models and Local Liturgy”, in Cathedrals in Mediterranean Europe (11th – 12th centuries). Ritual Stages when, according to the author, the centralisation and Sceneries, Gerardo Boto Varela, Justin Kroesen eds, Turnhout of the Angevin court in Naples and the spread of (forthcoming); Ruggero Longo, Elisabetta Scirocco, “A Scenario for the Salerno Ivories: The Liturgical Furnishings in the Cathedral at the Roman rite are reflected also in the conception Salerno”, in The Salerno Ivories: Material, History, Theology, Anthony and use of the liturgical furnishings. In a sort of Cutler [et al.] eds, 2 vols, (forthcoming). 11 Scirocco, “The Liturgical Installations” (n. 10). self-defensive reaction, therefore, the clergy pro- 12 Zchomelidse, “Der Osterleuchter” (n. 7); Eadem, “Amore Virginis“ jected itself towards a mythical celebration of local (n. 7); Eadem, “Descending word” (n. 7). 13 Zchomelidse, “Amore Virginis” (n. 7). liturgical traditions, such as at Capua, where the 14 A proposed reconstruction in the form of an altar has been recently narrative reliefs of the elaborate Easter candle- put forward by Giorgia Corso, in Giorgia Corso, Alessio Cuccaro, Claudia D’Alberto, La basilica di Santa Restituta a Napoli e il suo arredo stick include not only Christological scenes but medievale, Pescara 2012, pp. 76 –141. 163 reviews is presented as a monument intimately associat- the chiaroscuro effects of the sculptures on the ed with local roots; it is covered with crowded ambos in Campania except by going in person reliefs combining a carefully planned narrative to the churches of Salerno and Ravello on sunny and typological programme of the life of Christ days /Fig. 4/: the photographs in this book allow with that of Erasmus, martyr and patron saint of this and help to round off the evocative descrip- Gaeta15. This example is rightly presented as an tion of the rite and of its images in Campania aside in an epilogue as it does not fit in with the that is the principal contribution made by Nino traditional connection between decoration and Zchomelidse’s book to medieval studies. ritual function that is the leitmotif of the volume and whose origin is linked by the author to the The two books presented here satisfy some Beneventan roots of Campanian rite, which by of the principal desiderata of those who, like the the fourteenth century were outdated and had undersigned, are interested specifically in me- fallen into disuse. dieval sacred spaces and the rites practised here, From start to finish, in her fascinating analysis which in turn conditioned the form and deco- of ambos and candlesticks of Campania, Nino ration of the liturgical furnishings. Within the Zchomelidse keeps her eye firmly on the points bibliographic panorama of Romanesque art and cited in the title: Art, Ritual and Civic Identity, sum- architecture in Campania, which still awaits up- marising the complexity of the links between art dated monographic studies for many of its princi- and liturgy from several points of view and trac- pal monuments, the questions associated with the ing out a line of development for liturgical fur- link between artworks and context still remain nishings within the religious and historical milieu marginalised, and art historical studies have to in which they were made. The approach is inter- struggle with the absence of professional photo- disciplinary and opens the door to social, liturgi- graphic campaigns and topographical surveys. cal and musical history, including the latest trends For these reasons too, the publication of these in art-historical studies that look at the concepts of two volumes is indeed a critical intervention in agency, performativity, and the anthropology of the study of Italian art and architecture. images. The results of this study are presented in a fascinating way even for a public that has little 15 On this subject, see also Roberto Tollo, “Il candelabro per il cero pasquale nel duomo di Sant’Erasmo a Gaeta. Cronologia e com- knowledge of these (sometimes arduous) subjects. mittenza fra modelli ideologici e modelli stilistici”, in Medioevo: In this, the author is also assisted by the physical i modelli, ( I convegni di Parma, ii), proceedings of the conference ( Parma, 27 September – 1 October 1999), Arturo Carlo Quintavalle layout of the book, well designed by Penn Uni- ed., Milan 2002, pp. 392 – 404. versity Press, and the number of high-quality Elisabetta Scirocco photographs (approximately two hundreds, many Bibliotheca Hertziana, Rome of which in colour). Never before now had it been Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte possible to discern the sparkle of the mosaic and [email protected]

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