Форти Барбара
Римский Университет Ла Сапиенца, Италия
The continuity with classical tradition in the Middle Ages is shown by heterogeneous artistic occurrences (as the reuse of spolia or the inspiration to antiquity, conceived as a model), which express different purposes, variable technical skills and levels of awareness (not always easy to identify, indeed) from time to time.
The case here debated belongs to the category of artworks which ‘recover’ antiquity, and it highlights the transformation of the model, proposed again with a new significance and renewed forms. In the church of the convent of St. Charles Borromeo in Cave (Rome), two twisted columns, dating back to the late 11th or early 12th century (on a comparative basis), are kept.
The two columns, similar to another couple in the church of Trinità dei Monti in Rome, represent a particularly fortunate case, since the model is recognizable and still surviving: in fact, they look as reduced size replicas of the monumental columnae vitineae, likely produced in the Eastern part of the Empire no later than the 3rd century A.D. and reused in the now dismembered Constantinian pergula in the ancient Vatican basilica.
Identification of the model permits to ascribe the two columns to a context particularly favourable to the reproduction of Early Christian artworks, possibly Rome under the papacy of Gregory VII (1073-1085) and his successors.
The origin and function of the columns in Cave are unknown. Anyway, both their propensity for figurative art and the relief style, can be useful elements to relate with other contemporary artworks, such as the haghiasma of Grottaferrata Abbey (Rome). This group of artifacts allows to redefine the varied scenery of Roman art between the 11th and the 12th century, where, besides the most famous ‘non-iconic’ tendency – systematically practiced since the early 12th century by the marmorari conventionally defined as ‘Cosmati’ – the presence of a ‘figurative’ current should be noticed. Antiquity, which is once again an instrument of creativity for artists of all times, acts on both tendencies as the unifying background.