Castelseprio is the name of a comune (municipality) in the Province of Varese in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 35 km northwest of Milan and about 11 km south of Varese, bordering the municipalities of Cairate, Carnago, Gornate-Olona and Lonate Ceppino..
Castelseprio | |
|---|---|
| Comune di Castelseprio | |
 Coat of arms | |
Location of Castelseprio  | |
  Castelseprio Location of Castelseprio in Italy  Castelseprio Castelseprio (Lombardy) | |
| Coordinates: 45°43′N 8°52′E / 45.717°N 8.867°E | |
| Country | Italy |
| Region | Lombardy |
| Province | Varese (VA) |
| Demonym | Sepriesi |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
| Postal code | 21050 |
| Dialing code | 0331 |
| Website | www.castelseprio.net |
Though now a small village, with a population of 1,276 [1] and area of 3.9 km2 Castelseprio was once a Roman fort that commanded an important crossroad. It was also a major centre under the Lombards and a number of significant religious buildings from the first millenium survive.[2]
The fame of Castelseprio lies in the frescoes contained in the small Church of Santa Maria foris portas . These frescoes are of exceptional rarity and artistic significance. Hidden for centuries, the frescoes were only rediscoverd in 1944, and have remained relatively little known.
In 2006, the Italian Ministry of Culture in a submission to Unesco, said:
"The frescoes decorating the central apse of the church of Santa Maria foris portas constitute the finest early medieval pictorial cycle in terms of artistic quality, and are considered unique in early medieval European art."[3]
History of Santa Maria foris portas
During the early Middle Ages, the Lombards used the Roman fort at Castelseprio, turning it into a fortified citadel or small town. At one point coins were minted there - a sign of its importance. The Church of Santa Maria foris portas("foris portas" meaning "outside the gates" in Latin) which contains the famous frescoes, lay outside the walls of the citadel.
The whole citadel was completely destroyed by Ottone Visconti, Archbishop of Milan, after he captured it in 1287, to prevent it being used again by his rivals. The tiny church of Santa Maria Foris Portis was literally buried in the ruins.
The Church of Santa Maria foris portas was rediscovered in 1944 when some farmworkers took shelter from a storm in what they took to be a cave, before realizing it was actually an old building. Since then the rubble has been cleared from the whole area. According to another, less plausible, story, an American tank crashed into the church near the end of World War II, dislodging plaster to reveal the paintings.
The whole area is now an archaeological zone containing the remains of the walls and of the much larger three-aisled 5th-century Basilica of San Giovanni Evangelista. There is also a baptistry of the 5th to 7th centuries dedicated to St. John the Baptist. This has two fonts, perhaps for the use of different Rites, and is octagonal with a small apse to the east. A third Church of San Paolo has a central hexagonal plan and was built between the 6th and 12th centuries. There are some ruins left from the castle. Nearby is a large tower, once used as a convent.
The Frescoes of Castelseprio
In 1944, the Church of Santa Maria foris portas was discovered to contain a highly important and sophisticated cycle of fresco paintings showing very strong Byzantine influence. Their dating, and the origin of their painter or painters (two different hands are detected by some scholars, including Leveto), remain controversial, although the first half of the 9th century seems to be emerging as the most likely date.
Subjects
The frescoes are located around the wall of the apse. They are in three registers and are interrupted by several arched windows. They represent a cycle of the Nativity of Christ which may have been part of a larger program of either the Life of Christ or the Life of Mary. The lowest register has a decorative frieze below which there are a few remains showing painted curtain railings and religious symbols. This register may not have contained figures. The upper and middle registers contain narrative paintings.
Above the arch to the apse is the Hetoimasia, or Throne of God, with two angels on either side.
Upper register, reading left to right:
- a) Annunciation and Visitation - right side incomplete
- b) Trial by Water - left side incomplete
- c) Christ Pantocrator (the Judge) in roundel over the central window.
- d) Dream of Saint Joseph
- e) Journey to Bethlehem - incomplete on the right
There also appear to have been roundels with the heads of Mary and John the Baptist, located above the left and right windows.
Lower Register, reading right to left:
- g)Nativity, and Annunciation to the shepherds
- h) Presentation of Jesus at the Temple
- i) Adoration of the Magi, on the side of the chancel arch.
- j) Remnants of the Dream of the Magi, opposite side of chancel arch.
- k and l) Rudimentary remains of two frescoes which are thought to have been the Massacre of the Innocents and the Flight into Egypt. [4]
The condition of the frescoes is variable; some parts are well-preserved whilst others are missing completely, or barely visible. Much of the painted area has been pitted to provide a key for the subsequent plastering-over (see the lower area in the middle of the Presentation scene). The full extent of the original cycle is uncertain.
Style
The frescoes are sophisticated, expressive and confident. The artist adapts traditional compositional types to the particular site without strain or disproportion. Poses are natural and rhythmic, and the whole has "a great ardor and conviction, an intense response to the human meaning of the subject" (Schapiro). While some aspects of the frescoes, notably the iconography, are clearly Byzantine, others may draw on Syrian or Egyptian models.
The frescoes also have significant aspects which relate most closely to the late antique art of Italy. Several of the buildings are successfully foreshortened, and the relationship between buildings and figures is more effectively managed than in most Byzantine painting. The painting is done with unusual freedom compared to most Byzantine work; it is this feature which relates to much earlier works from the late antiquity such as paintings found in the catacombs of Rome.
Some art historians see the style as coming from the tradition of Alexandria, from which no other painting on a similar scale remains.
Dating
In 1950, soon after the frescoes were first discovered, a poll of the scholars who attended a conference in Castelseprio showed a rough split between dates in the 7th and 10th century, although the extreme range of dates that have been suggested stretches from 600 to the 14th century.
The range was reduced by the discovery of graffiti scratched into the fresco plaster recording a number of clerical appointments, the earliest of which is dated (by the name of the presiding Archbishop of Milan) to 945 at the latest. Many writers feel that a certain interval must have elapsed after the painting of the cycle before the clergy would have treated the paintings in this way.
Much art historical energy has been spent discussing the detailed relationship of the frescoes to the closest extensive cycles of painting, both of which are in manuscript form, namely the Joshua Roll (Vatican Library, Ms palatine gr. 431) and the Paris Psalter (Bibliothèque nationale de France Ms Grec. 139) [2]. However, the dating of both manuscripts is likewise controversial. The art historians Kurt Weitzmann and Meyer Schapiro agreed that the artistic quality of the frescoes is superior to that of either manuscript.
Radio-carbon dating has now dated the timber used in the construction of the church, although this only provides a "terminus post quem", as it not certain that the frescoes were added imediately after construction. However, the rough finish on the interior stonework leads many scholars to believe that the frescoes were added as part of the original building programme.
Kurt Weitzmann preferred a date shortly before 945, and postulated a connection with a marriage between a Lombard princess and a Byzantine prince, which took place in 944. He favoured as the artist an unknown Constantinopolitan artist, trained in the same workshop as the artists of the two manuscripts, on a visit in connection with the marriage.
Schapiro preferred a date between the 7th and 9th centuries, in 1957 settling on the 8th century. Most recent writers prefer the first half of the 9th century; carbon-dating of the timber and thermo-luminescence tests on the roof tiles date the building itself to this period. Some writers believe the work may have been done by Greek refugees long settled in Italy, or by Italians trained by such artists. Others believe that artists fresh from the Byzantine world were responsible.
Aspects of the works
Almost every aspect of the frescoes, from the clothing to the treatment of the nimbus or halo around the infant Christ, has been analysed and compared to other works in great detail. Some examples are:
- The inscriptions naming various figures are in Latin, and in Roman script, but the midwife at the Nativity is named as "EMEA", the "E" ("H" in the Greek alphabet) being a form of the Greek for "the". In the Byzantine period it is common to find Greek inscriptions naming figures in paintings which include the definite article. The Greek form of the inscription would be: "H MAIA".
- The treatment of the architectural elements within the paintings has been compared to Hellenizing work produced for Moslem patrons in the 8th century, at the Great Mosque in Damascus and elsewhere.
- The legend of the doubting midwife, whose withered arm is miraculously cured, shown in the Nativity scene, probably appears only in art from the West during this period.
- The trial by water is otherwise unknown in Western iconography, and this is one of the latest of the few Byzantine depictions.[5] The legend comes from the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James and occurs, in the fully developed story, after the Dream of Joseph, in which an angel reassures Joseph who is disturbed to discover Mary's pregnancy, since he knows he has not slept with her. In the legend, others also notice the pregnancy and to dispell gossip and accusations, the priests of the Temple (where Mary had formerly been a temple maid) make the couple undergo the trial of drinking "bitter water" — their reaction to which will prove or disprove their innocence. Naturally they pass. The idea of the trial is clearly based on Numbers 5, 11 ff.[5] The legend was part of some Western medieval religious dramas, in which the "detractors" then drank the water, with horrible results. An example is the N-town Pageant series manuscript in the British Library, London (BL MS Cotton Vespasian D.8), which is mid-15th century from the East Midlands of England.[6]
Commune of Castelseprio
Demographic evolution
References
- Main source on frescoes: The Frescoes of Castelseprio (1952 & 1957) in Meyer Schapiro, Selected Papers, volume 3, Late Antique, Early Christian and Mediaeval Art, pp 67–142, 1980, Chatto & Windus, London, ISBN 0701125144 , originally in The Art Bulletin, June 1952 and Dec 1957.
- ^ As of 31 December 2004
- ^ All demographics and other statistics: Italian statistical institute Istat.
- ^ Unesco website
- ^ Castelseprio Website[1]
- ^ a b G. Schiller, Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. I, 1971 (English trans from German), Lund Humphries, London, p. 56 & figs, ISBN 853312702 Schapiro mentions also 10th century frescoes in Cappadocia
- ^ Modernised version of the text of the scene from the N-town Pageant series in the British Library, London (BL MS Cotton Vespasian D.8). Mid-15th century from the East Midlands of England. See also Introduction page on the site.
Further reading
- The Fresco Cycle of S. Maria di Castelseprio by Kurt Weitzmann, 1951, Princeton.
- There is a very full bibliography on the official website - "Bibliografia" page.
External links
- Official site — one page in English, but Italian version is very full, with maps, history, bibliography etc. For fresco pictures, click "I monumenti", then "Il ciclo di pitture" on the menu band below.
- PD Leveto article in JStor (subscription only beyond first page, which itself has useful information).