medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Jim,
Novalesa is practically over the horizon for me: apart from the
literature on the _Chronicon Novaliciense_ I've paid very little
attention to it. There is a bunch of articles on the place, including
one on the Cappella di Sant'Eldrado in AA.VV., _Atti del V congresso
nazionale di archeologia cristiana, Torino / Valle di Susa / Cuneo /
Asti / Valle d’Aosta / Novara, 22-29 settembre 1979_ (Roma: Viella,
1982). But that was before the recent restorations, which latter are
likely to have engendered art historical scholarship as well.
The Eldrad- and Nicholas-cycles are said, in material from the Diocese
of Susa (but of what date?), to be the work of a Lombardic painter and
to have parallels at Oleggio, Como, Civate, Lugano, and Aurogo. That's
from this site:
http://www.montagnedoc.it/template_scheda.php?ID=161&tipo=scheda&cat=16&PHPSESSID=6b94e5787f5003efddcd021c783f75fb
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/6ut3n
They're dated to the very end of the 11th-century by virtue of the
priory's having received in 1096 a St. Nicholas relic from a French
contingent passing through on return from Crusade. 1096 is also said to
be the year of abbot Aldradus' death, so perhaps commissioning those
paintings was the work of his successor. Whether the apse paintings and
the Last Judgment (over the egress) were also part of that campaign I
don't know.
According to this account of the Novalesa chapels, the Last Judgment
suffered very badly from 19th-century restoration attempts:
http://www.piemonte-magazine.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=159&page=3
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/6ok8y
If you find out more, please let us all know.
Best,
John Dillon
On Tuesday, March 15, 2005, at 7:16 pm, Jim Bugslag wrote:
> > > Chapel of Sts. Eldrad and Nicholas (10th-11th cent.; internal
> frescoes,> > 2d half of 11th cent.):
>
> > > apse frescoes:
> > > http://www.abbazianovalesa.org/abside_eldrado.htm
>
> Dear John,
> That is a fascinating and most unusual Last Judgement fresco. It
> looks as if the
> dead are being resurrected below, at the blast of the angels to
> either side, as is
> usual, but then in the middle is what looks like the hill of
> calvary, with the
> instruments of the Passion around the base, and another, more
> substantial cross on
> top. Do you -- or does anyone else -- know anything about this
> peculiar treatment?
> Cheers,
> Jim Bugslag
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