Sub tutela Virginis. L’icona marmorea dell’abbazia di Santa Maria a Banzi e alcune note sull’arte del Trecento tra Puglia e Basilicata

The Benedictine Abbey of Santa Maria a Banzi in Basilicata is one of the oldest in the entire Region. Documentary sources attest its existence already in the Early Middle Age and follow its history and transformations over the centuries. The moment of major well-being seems to have been in the 14th Century. At that time, a precious marble artifact was commissioned by Abbot Domenico of Cervarezza (a now disappeared farmhouse), currently reused in the highest part of the facade of the church of Santa Maria. It is a large marble icon depicting a Virgin Odegitria enthroned with the marching Child on her right leg. At the margins, an Archangel and the patron himself, in bishop’s robes, appear in reduced dimensions. At the base of the icon is a long inscription that recalls the name of the client and the year of execution of the object, 1331. Although known to critics since the end of the 19th Century, and repeatedly mentioned by scholars even over the following decades, still throughout the 20th and until the beginning of the 21st Century, the artifact has never been analyzed in detail. The direct observation of the icon, however, thanks to a recent restoration, has been able to facilitate the discovery of a third line in the inscription, providing us the name of the artist and his provenance: a Peter from the monastery of San Vito in Bari. No other works are known by this sculptor, but the survival of three other marble icons, once at the monastery of San Vito in Polignano and now in the Pinacoteca Provinciale in Bari, might help us reconstruct his artistic path, assuming that he was precisely expert in the realization of this specific type of objects. Some technical and iconographic elements, shared by the four marble icons, may reveal an artistic evolution of Peter over time, thus ensuring that the execution of these artifacts is arranged in a more precise chronological order. The study of the Banzi icon, then, in its formal and iconographic components, finally allows us to trace its possible models and also to understand its power of influence on local art. Therefore, a new artistic personality emerges for the Apulian art of the 14th Century, enriching the repertoire of knowledge on Angevin sculpture in Southern Italy