La decorazione muraria a intarsi nell'Italia normanna: gli episodi calabresi nel contesto dei rapporti tra Ducato e Contea

External wall decorations with geometric stone inlays are a common feature of the Norman architecture in southern Italy. The first examples can be find in Salerno and in Casertavecchia around 1100. This sort of ornament spread during the twelfth century across Norman Italy: initially in the Amalfi Coast and the area of Salerno, then towards north (Abruzzo and Southern Lazio) and Sicily. The discussion about the origins of the Norman stone inlay is still open, although the theory of the survivor of the Roman building tradition has replaced the old one of the Arabian influence. A. Cadei proposed that the adoption of this decoration form could have marked historical moments of particular close relationships between the Norman rulers and the Roman Church. The diffusion process can be better defined by the analysis of the two Calabrian examples of Norman stone inlay: S. Maria del Patir in Rossano and the cathedral of Tropea. The Greek monastery of S. Maria del Patir belongs to the first half of the twelfth century and shows several common features with the contemporary artistic production of the Norman Duchy. This affinity is due to the actual submission of Northern Calabria to Duke Roger Borsa during the regency of the Norman County by the widow of Roger I Adelasia del Vasto (1101-1112). The lack of examples of stone inlays in the architecture of the County could reveal that this decorative form was felt as too distinctive of the Duke’s patronage. Only several years after the royal crowning of Roger II (1130) the stone inlay appeared in buildings founded under the auspices of the descendants of Count Roger I. The Sicilian re-elaborated version of the inlay decoration influenced the cathedral of Tropea, closing the circulation of this ornamental system between the main centers and the periphery of the Norman south.

Il contributo tratta della genesi della tecnica di decorazione muraria ad intarsi nella Campania normanna e della sua prima diffusione nel Meridione. Un approfondimento è dedicato alle esperienze calabresi, in particolare a S. Maria del Patir a Rossano.