Pavia picta. Notes on Figural Lombard Culture Rooted in San Michele A glimpse of Pavia’s early medieval pictorial and mosaic richness can be gained from four tituli contained in the Lorsch sylloge. Combining what the tituli offer with information about the politico-ecclesiastical situation as well as archaeological evidence of the pre-Carolingian city, this article presents the hypothesis that the inscriptions referred to images created in the church of San Michele over the seventh and eighth centuries. The image of St Michael (...) at one time dominating the entrance, and that of a Christus Victor, could date back to a rearrangement of the church resulting from the affirmation of the cult of the Archangel in the second half of the seventh century. These and other figural elements may have provided inspiration for the works promoted by King Desiderius (757-774), to whom an inscription seems to attribute an apsidal mosaic replacing an older decoration. (shrink)

Equestrian images of Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, can be studied through written sources. This article focuses on the articulation between monumental sculptures that stood in public spaces and mosaic images recorded in the palaces of Ravenna and Pavia. This allows to reflect on the relationship between statuary and two-dimensional images in the depiction of the sovereign in Late Antiquity. Analysis of the main theoderician images known shows a renewed emphasis in representative media on two-dimensional images that served to place (...) Theodoric in the tradition of the empire he led, presenting him at the same time as a leader with new ambitions for his realm. (shrink)