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Item Number: 133405
Title: Imperituro : Renovatio imperii : Ravenna nell’Europa ottoniana / Ravenna in Ottonian Europe
Author: Guermandi, Maria Pia ; Silvia Urbini (eds)
Price: Not Available
ISBN: 9788897281351
Description: Bologna: Istituto per i Beni Artistici Culturali e Naturali della Regione Emilia Romagna, 2014. 28cm., pbk., 244pp. illus., most in color. Exhibition held at Museo Tamo, Ravenna. Italian-English text. Summary: The Imperiituro exhibition, housed in two locations of the Tamo Museum and in Classense Library is divided into 5 sections Charlemagne and Italy (TAMO Museum) The Ottonians, Italy and Ravenna (TAMO Museum) The role of the classical tradition and the circulation of models in the Ottonian period (TAMO Museum) From Charlemagne to the Ottonians in Ravenna: documental, historiographic and iconographic heritage (Classense Library) Drawing the Middle Ages (Classense Library). The theme of Renovatio imperii is addressed starting from Charlemagne’s initiatives to create Aachen, his Roma secunda. The emperor’s ties with Italy, from which he took works representing his imperial ideal to Germany, were a source of inspiration for the emperors who succeeded him, the Ottonians in particular. The Palatine Chapel at Aachen shows analogies with Byzantine architectural models dating from Justinian’s reign, based on a central octagonal plan: there is also a clear reference to the basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. A section dedicated to the important role Italy had for Otto the Great and his wife Adelaide, Otto II and his Byzantine wife Theophano and their son Otto III, who had a short but fascinating life. Besides Rome, the capital of Christianity and the imperial ideal, and Pavia, the actual capital of the kingdom of Italy, Milan and Ravenna were their points of reference. As of 966, when Otto the Great returned Ravenna and the Exarchate to the pope, who in turn handed them over to the empress Adelaide, Ravenna again became one of the capitals of the kingdom of Italy and was one of the places of residence preferred by the Ottonians. Though there are no surviving Ottonian monuments in Ravenna, various sources and archaeological investigations have shed light on the imperial residences – and in particular on the exceptional story of the complex of San Severo in Classe - as well as on the role played by the emperors in the local cultural and artistic history. The original style of Ottonian artistic production, characterized by interwoven elements of the Roman, Constantinoplian and Carolingian imperial ideas. Thanks to Charlemagne and the emperors of the Ottonian dynasty, Rome regained a central role in the European imagination and politics. Its imperial past created a powerfully evocative image and attempts were made to recreate it by carrying away ancient artifacts from Rome to Europe or imitating the objects, monuments and iconographies identified with the eternal city. The works featured show some typical ways in which objects of antiquity were reused: their use for political ends, the passage from reuse to imitation, coexistence of classical and Christian iconographies, taste for assembling fragments originating from different times, etc. In collaboration with the State Archives, the Classense Library displays evidences of the "imperial" Ravenna and its Roman survivals, traces of the idea of Empire that inspired the Carolingian project of political and cultural renewal. Are exhibited imperial diplomas from the 10th century, four 16th-century chronicles of the greatest Ravenna's scholars and iconographic evidences on the idea of the Roman and late imperial Ravenna which survived in the collective memory until the modern age. The exhibit dedicated to Ravenna’s past draws on two sources: One of them consisting in old documents from the Ottonian period kept in municipal archives, the Archiepiscopal Historical Archive, the State Archive and the Municipal Historical Archive; The other in historiographical reconstructions of the modern age, between the 15th and 16th centuries, which provide us with accounts and images which convey the idea of Ravenna as a place of inspiration for imperial power from the Carolingian era and toward the new millennium.
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