A trip in Italy, Sept.–Oct. 2021
[While I upload photos from 2020, I am also trying to keep up with some of my more current works by uploading a couple of photographs every day, in the afternoon or evening.]
In September and October 2021, we spent three weeks touring the Italian regions of Abruzzo, Umbria, Marches and Emilia-Romagna, which we hadn’t visited yet.
Personally, I had my sights firmly set on a series of early Romanesque churches of high architectural and artistic interest, so you will see quite a few of those, in spite of the typical Italian administration-related problems I encountered, and which were both stupid and quite unpleasant.
There will also be other sorts of old stones, landscapes, etc., and I hope you will enjoy looking at them and have a good time doing so. If it makes you want to go, do, by all means, Italy is a wonderful country.
Today and the following days, we will spend some time to discover the beautiful early Romanesque church of Santa Maria in Valle Porclaneta, located in a quiet and faraway valley in Abruzzo.
Built most likely between 1000 and 1050 as part of a Benedictine monastery, it shows some Oriental influences. The fore arch was built later in lieu of a cloister which has now all but disappeared. The pronaos that was the entrance to the church still exists and stands nearby, I will show it in a photograph to be uploaded in the following days.
The church is designed on a basilica-type plan with three naves and one semi-circular apse. Inside, as in the Santa Maria del Lago church we have already seen, there is a magnificently sculpted ambone (elevated pulpit), also attributed to Nicodemo di Guardiagrele, as in Santa Maria del Lago. The sculptures on it, as well as the motifs that decorate the ciborium
above the altar and the capitals, are typical of Benedictine imagery with Byzantine and Oriental influences.
This church also retains an almost intact cancel, partly made of a long piece of carved wood from the 12th century, which is a masterpiece and a truly unique piece of artistry.
The façade.
A trip in Italy, Sept.–Oct. 2021
[While I upload photos from 2020, I am also trying to keep up with some of my more current works by uploading a couple of photographs every day, in the afternoon or evening.]
In September and October 2021, we spent three weeks touring the Italian regions of Abruzzo, Umbria, Marches and Emilia-Romagna, which we hadn’t visited yet.
Personally, I had my sights firmly set on a series of early Romanesque churches of high architectural and artistic interest, so you will see quite a few of those, in spite of the typical Italian administration-related problems I encountered, and which were both stupid and quite unpleasant.
There will also be other sorts of old stones, landscapes, etc., and I hope you will enjoy looking at them and have a good time doing so. If it makes you want to go, do, by all means, Italy is a wonderful country.
Today and the following days, we will spend some time to discover the beautiful early Romanesque church of Santa Maria in Valle Porclaneta, located in a quiet and faraway valley in Abruzzo.
Built most likely between 1000 and 1050 as part of a Benedictine monastery, it shows some Oriental influences. The fore arch was built later in lieu of a cloister which has now all but disappeared. The pronaos that was the entrance to the church still exists and stands nearby, I will show it in a photograph to be uploaded in the following days.
The church is designed on a basilica-type plan with three naves and one semi-circular apse. Inside, as in the Santa Maria del Lago church we have already seen, there is a magnificently sculpted ambone (elevated pulpit), also attributed to Nicodemo di Guardiagrele, as in Santa Maria del Lago. The sculptures on it, as well as the motifs that decorate the ciborium
above the altar and the capitals, are typical of Benedictine imagery with Byzantine and Oriental influences.
This church also retains an almost intact cancel, partly made of a long piece of carved wood from the 12th century, which is a masterpiece and a truly unique piece of artistry.
The façade.