Lucca in the Middle Ages
Lucca
by FLAVIO BOGGI
THE FO NDAZIO NE RAGGHIANTI celebrated
the centenary of the birth of its founder, Carlo
Ludovico Ragghianti (1910–87), with the
exhibition Lucca e l’Europa: un’idea di medioevo;
V–XI secolo (closed 9th January). Held in the
former monastic complex of S. Micheletto,
Lucca, the institution’s beautiful home
within the sixteenth-century city ramparts, it
addressed the European context of Lucchese
art over seven centuries and across various
media and techniques, from metalwork
and manuscript illumination to textiles and
ivories. But it was more than a critical revaluation of the artistic culture of an often overlooked Tuscan town. As the subtitle of both
the show and the accompanying catalogue1
suggests, it was also an opportunity to probe
Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti’s methodology,
rooted as it was in Benedetto Croce’s ‘pura
visibilità’ and Alois Riegl’s Kunstwollen. Critic,
film-maker, teacher, art historian and politician, Ragghianti made a significant contribution to the cultural and intellectual life of
post-War Italy. And although his academic
interests encompassed a broad range of subjects – Pompeian frescos and Piet Mondrian’s
paintings, as well as cinema, theatre and dance
– Lucca e l’Europa had as its central focus his
thoughts on medieval art. The organisers,
mostly Ragghianti’s former pupils from the
University of Pisa, made their careful
selection of objects mindful of his particular
priorities. In fact, the latter acted as a critical
framework, if not a lens through which the
viewer was encouraged to look at the works
on show. A wall text revealed something of
his methods,2 but those who wish to get to
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EXHIBITIONS
68. Consular diptych
of Areobindus.
Constantinople, early
sixth century. Elephant
ivory, 34 by 12.5 cm.
(each valve). (Museo
della Cattedrale, Lucca;
exh. Fondazione
Ragghianti, Lucca).
grips with Ragghianti’s ideas should read
Prius ars, his survey of Italian art from the fifth
century to the tenth, which was reissued in
2010 as part of the centenary celebrations.3
The range and variety of the 102 exhibits
emphasised Ragghianti’s outlook, in particular, his belief that many different products of
human creativity are worthy of serious
scholarly scrutiny and that a meaningful
investigation of the material culture of the
past can only be realised if predetermined
notions of artistic hierarchy are discarded.
While such concerns are commonplace in
medieval studies today, they were less evident in the Italian academic circles in which
Ragghianti was trained. Given that the
premise of the exhibition hinged on Lucchese art, at least one item from or for the town
was reverentially installed in most sections.
In an unpublished personal note Ragghianti
commented on his lifelong reflection on the
visual culture of his native city and its place
within a more universal history of the arts.4
Curatorial decisions on the grouping of
works clearly took account of this. The
objects were largely arranged by artistic
medium and production method in eleven
uncluttered sections, although some of the
larger rooms allowed for a thematic reading
across categories and types. The layout also
conveyed a chronological progression from
the world of late antiquity to the emergence
of the Romanesque style in the early age of
the Italian commune.
The first room featured a selection of
coinage dating from the late Roman empire
to the period of the Lombard duchy of Lucca
and after (cat. nos.1–23). The sequence highlighted the increasingly abstract decorative
principles of the later examples. While the
coins themselves were often too tiny to allow
for a meaningful appraisal, enlarged photographs aided the visitor’s appreciation. One of
Ragghianti’s own ‘critofilms’, The art of coins
in the late Roman empire (1958), was shown in
a room at the end of the exhibition. This
underscored his keen interest in pattern, while
also making clear his debt to the numismatic
studies of both Riegl and Julius von Schlosser.
Gathered near the coins were ivories
(nos.24–26) – two consular diptychs and a pyx
– and two carved marble human heads
(nos.27–28), all from the fifth and sixth centuries. The message here – the ever-changing
norms and variations of late antique art – is not
new, but the arrangement and close proximity of works in different media gave it a
particular resonance. The diptychs were the
highlight of the room, especially the earlier
example commemorating Basilius (no.24),
whose valves – one in Milan and the other in
Florence – were temporarily reunited for the
event. The presence of Lucca’s Areobindus
diptych (no.25; Fig.68) in the same glass case
encouraged receptive viewers to test each
carver’s markedly distinctive response to
narrative and symbolism.
The following two rooms treated the
advent and development of abstract decoration in a range of artefacts from the sixth
century to around the ninth. The first of these
spaces, mostly dedicated to early medieval
arms and jewellery, was dimly lit so that the
precious metals and polished stones gleamed
in the dark. Many of the exhibits were
archaeological finds from Lucca, but a few
choice items from treasure hoards from
elsewhere in Italy were also included, among
them a late sixth- or early seventh-century
disc brooch unearthed from a Lombard
grave in Parma in 1950 (no.39), its glistening
cloisonné enamelling remains as powerfully
appealing today as it must have been for the
woman who first wore it. It is likely to have
been the product of a goldsmith attached to
the Lombard court in Milan who was also in
contact with the traditions of Byzantine jewellers. Fragments of marble relief sculpture,
mostly architectural decoration, were found
in this and the adjoining room (nos.40–43 and
46–54), making a profound visual statement
about the inventive use of pattern in another
medium and on a different scale, and demonstrating the interaction between craftsmen in
gold and sculptors in stone.
The exhibition examined the formation of
new artistic imperatives in the Carolingian
and the Ottonian ages. The wide-ranging
spectrum of crafts such as polychromed stucco sculpture (nos.59–60), fresco painting
(no.61), metalwork (no.63), manuscript illumination (nos.64–69) and carving in ivory,
69. Detail of a textile fragment. Syria, late eighth–early
ninth century. Worked silk, whole fragment 150
by 122 cm. (Museo Diocesano, Ascoli Piceno; exh.
Fondazione Ragghianti, Lucca).
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EXHIBITIONS
70. Lion.
Tuscany(?),
before 1263.
Bronze, 30 by 50
cm. (Private
collection,
Lugano;
exh. Fondazione
Ragghianti,
Lucca).
wood, bone and stone (nos.70–74), encouraged the visitor to reflect on the high degree
of compilation and assimilation in the arts
from both north and south of the Alps, and
from the eastern and western fringes of
Europe. This synthesis was most clearly
expressed in the juxtaposition of codices dating from the ninth century to the eleventh
from Lucca (nos.64 and 69) and elsewhere
(nos.65–68). There the emphasis was on the
aesthetic importance of the abstract patterns
on the page. The clever installation of the
manuscripts provided insights into the varied
forms and functions of the decorated initial,
even if in some cases it might have been possible to exhibit more than a single page from
each item, especially for MS 490 (Biblioteca
Capitolare Feliniana, Lucca; no.44), which is
currently disbound.
The final displays focused on the Italian
peninsula’s relationship with Byzantine and
Islamic cultures. This was a rare opportunity
to compare an impressive array of imported
luxury textiles (nos.75–78) with examples of
monumental sculpture (nos.79–87). Perhaps
the most alluring object in the show was a
substantial fragment of a little-known ninthcentury Syrian brocade depicting hunting
scenes (no.78; Fig.69), which was wrapped
around the bones of St Emydigius when they
were translated to the cathedral of Ascoli
Piceno in the eleventh century. Across the
room were two marble reliefs from the late
900s which once belonged to Sorrento
Cathedral (no.79). The symmetry of their
designs and the treatment of the ornamental
motifs illustrated how much Italian sculpture
was invigorated by design practices derived
from other media and from foreign artistic
traditions. While the arrangement of the textiles and sculpture illustrated stylistic parallels
and variations, more light might have been
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cast on the elusive topic of the medieval
beholder’s reception of crafts and materials,
especially those of Oriental origin.
A bronze lion (no.102; Fig.70) acted as a
coda to this rich and beautifully presented
exhibition. This rare, if not unique work is
thought to date to before 1263, as Carlo
Bertelli convincingly argues in the catalogue.5 The concentrated gaze and anthropomorphic head of the fearsome creature
betrays clear points of contact with the
designs of marble carvers active in Lucca,
Pisa, Barga and Pistoia in the thirteenth century. But much remains to be explained
about this puzzling piece, which the organisers of Lucca e l’Europa promise to revisit in
a future exhibition devoted to the artistic
culture of Romanesque Tuscany, one of
Ragghianti’s greatest scholarly passions.
1
Catalogue: Lucca e l’Europa: un’idea di medioevo; V–XI
secolo. Edited by Clara Baracchini, Carlo Bertelli, Antonino Caleca, Marco Collareta, Gigetta Dalli Regoli and
Maria Teresa Filieri. 256 pp. incl. 179 col. + 84 b. & w.
ills. (Edizioni Fondazione Ragghianti Studi sull’Arte,
Lucca, 2010), €30. ISBN 978–88–89324–26–4. An
edited collection of essays on the wider concerns of
the exhibition is forthcoming.
2 ‘. . . un criterio storiografico che, liberato da ogni soggezione
a teorie od ipotesi preordinate od a schemi preconcetti, costituisca anzitutto una precisa restituzione pragmatica, oggetiva
degli eventi artistici, e cerchi di accertarne ed esporne la
differenziata qualità . . .’.
3 C.L. Ragghianti: Prius ars: arte in Italia dal secolo V al
secolo X, ed. A. Caleca, Lucca 2010; first published as
C.L. Ragghianti: L’arte in Italia, vol.II, Dal secolo V al
secolo XI: da Roma ai comuni, Rome 1968.
4 ‘Posso dire che fin da giovanissimo fui fra i più attivi cultori
del patrimonio artistico lucchese, che per la sua varietà e
complessità rifletté durevolmente nel mio animo il senso della
differenziazione coeva dei fenomeni artistici’. Quoted by G.
Cattani and M.T. Filieri in the foreword to the catalogue.
5 C. Bertelli: ‘Leone’, in Baracchini, op. cit. (note 1),
pp.222–26.
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