Navigare nell’Italia bizantina: un’introduzione

Italy preserves a priceless patrimony of Byzantine objects, currently held by museums, collections, and churches. These works of art are variously distributed throughout the country, forming a network that is barely visible and, to some extent, “submerged”: many objects are poorly known, and even their exact number is uncertain. The most systematic studies thus far have primarily focused on monumental art (architecture, painting, mosaic, sculpture, and liturgical furniture), as shown by overviews and corpora – either already completed or still in progress. Despite their importance for religious and artistic history, during the 20th century – and especially under the Fascist regime – these objects were often marginalized in Italy, as was Byzantine civilization in general. Therefore, they deserve to be investigated in a multidisciplinary, global Mediterranean perspective. The main purpose of the PRIN project “Navigating through Byzantine Italy. An Online Catalog to Study and Enhance a Submerged Artistic Heritage” is to create an online database to catalog objects on display or publicly accessible in Italy and in the Vatican City, that date back to the Byzantine Millennium (330-1453 CE). Several Italian territories were fully part of the Eastern Roman Empire for centuries, and Italian cities always maintained close connections with Byzantium. Therefore, Byzantine objects are fundamental testimonies of a multifaceted reality and can provide valuable information for the reconstruction and the re-evaluation of cultural identities that are still lively and vibrant. The objects in the database amount to approximately 1300 and are characterized by very different materials and techniques: panel paintings; micromosaics; detached frescoes; wall and floor detached mosaics; marble and wooden sculptures; carvings in ivory, bone and steatite; metalworks; textiles; ceramics. These works of art, which have arrived in Italy in many different ways (piety and pilgrimage; patronage; diplomacy; trading; looting and pillaging; collecting; etc.), have passed through time and space and have found home in an historical, geographical and cultural habitat different from their original one. The observer and the scholar of today find, therefore, cases of reuse, manipulation and recontextualization, frequently of real and proper resemantization. These changes have granted the Byzantine artefacts to survive through the centuries but they have given them a new status and a new public.