Parish Church of San Giorgio di Valpolicella

Interior (see photo interior) The interior is divided into three aisles, starting from the west, by plain composite piers of rectangular plan without decoration (except for the piers on the south side, painted with figures of saints executed in the post-Romanesque period): in sequence, four piers and three columns on the south side and five piers on the north, the easternmost of which is set between two columns, support eight longitudinal arches on each side, their soffits adorned with repetitive motifs of circles with star-shaped leaves and chalices or cups, painted in red. There is no crypt, and the floor is of pale limestone tiles. The roofs have exposed beams (trusses), clearly of recent date. The walls are built entirely of pale, roughly hewn stones of modest size. Seven single-light windows are set in the south wall of the nave, while there are no openings in the opposite north wall. In addition to the seven high single-light windows, three different openings are set in the outer wall of the south aisle: beside the projection formed by the base of the bell tower, towards the west, there are two square-headed doors opening onto the churchyard, while another door, opening onto the cloister, is located in the last bay before the south apsidiole; it is surmounted by a round arch, and the adjoining wall surfaces are heavily plastered, partly to receive the fresco of Adam in the Garden of Eden. The apse area takes its light from the three single-light windows of the main apse and from the two set in each of the minor apses. In the north wall of the presbytery area is set a stucco sculpture of the Gothic period, depicting a Madonna flanked by four saints. In the centre is a small door that presumably opens onto the niche holding the holy oil for baptisms: below it runs a relief of leaves with a shield in the centre. Towards the nave, in the spaces between the longitudinal arches, modern medallions depicting the Stations of the “Via Crucis” have been placed. The capitals of the columns were made from blocks carved out of Roman altars. On three of these, counting from the entrance, the first on the north side and the second and third on the south side, inscriptions in Latin letters can still be read. Moreover, the base of the first column on the south side is formed by a pagan Roman altar of monolithic stone (see photo Roman altar), on which one reads: “SOLI ETIVNA(I?) … O SERTORIVS OF … FESTVS FLAMIN …“ This pre-Roman fragment, “with a dedication to the Sun and the Moon”, would support the hypothesis that the site was used for worship in ancient times. It is curious that most of the fragments of the Roman and pre-Christian or pagan period reused in the architectural structures of the church are concentrated in the east area, in the sector of the building that scholars identify as Romanesque, whereas in the older west sector, which roughly occupies in length the first four longitudinal arches and the corresponding first eight piers (four on each side), reused material is almost absent. Likewise, substantial remains of frescoes of various periods are concentrated in the south sector, from the side apse to the piers and the long wall of the aisle, as well as in the west end of the nave. Unusual, and of rather obscure meaning, is the scene painted above the door leading to the cloister, where on the left there remains visible a full-length naked figure framed by a red and yellow border. The scene is interrupted in the centre by a conspicuous loss of paint, and then continues to the right with a sequence of three figures. Only one figure is preserved in its entirety, near a palace or tower. The execution is sober and linear, with a limited range of colour variations. The heavily marked folds of the garments and the robust facial features recall artistic experiences of archaic and Byzantinising derivation. The dating of these painted remains is uncertain, as is their interpretation. Scholars propose the 13th century (perhaps its beginning) and interpret the episode as Adam in the Garden of Eden. Important, although considerably deteriorated, are the painted remains adorning the central section of the west entrance. In the apse conch, against a light blue/blue background, sits enthroned the blessing Christ (Pantocrator), set within a mandorla with several borders in red, light blue and white. The symbols of the four evangelists must have flanked the mandorla. Unfortunately, almost nothing remains on the right, while on the left, badly damaged and hard to make out, one can discern, at the bottom, the Ox, symbol of the evangelist Luke, surmounted by the figure of a saint (the golden halo around the head is visible), kneeling with his back to Christ. Both the intradoses and the front of the apse splay preserve a decoration of geometric motifs on a red ground. Another type of geometric decoration, a labyrinth pattern, borders the Christological image below. A little lower there is a niche with remains of paintings. The sector partly occupied by the present entrance has suffered greatly from this insertion, preserving in some stretches of wall fragments that have by now become almost sinopias. Traces of fresco also survive on the upper front of the nave, between the two single-light windows, while on the two jambs, somewhat more legible, the figures of two saints can be glimpsed, one on each side (see photo west apse). According to the 1975 restoration, the date of execution could be placed between the end of the 11th century and the beginning of the 12th. For the purposes of chronological comparison, critics would detect “Byzantine influences, but always in an Ottonian key” in the surviving portions of the painted decoration of the western area of San Giorgio di Valpolicella, “which seem more closely related to Lombard art”. In the eastern sector, on the triumphal arch that precedes the apse from the nave, traces of painted scenes survive; a fragment on the south face remains partly legible (see photo east triumphal arch), showing a haloed saint with white beard and hair, his gaze turned towards the corner lunette, holding a boy on his knees, perhaps protecting him from a beast standing on its hind legs, with the muzzle of a dog or a fox. Also remarkably accurate is the horizontal fret below the roof, decorated with a geometric motif in different colours and in a good state of preservation. The style would not seem to belong with the frescoes of the opposite western sector, although there remain clues that may point to artistic traditions that were still medieval. Also on the south side wall a Last Supper is depicted. According to scholars, the distinctive feature of this fresco lies in its depiction of the Holy Table furnished with various objects typical of the time (probably a work of the 13th century). Ciborium (see photo ciborium) In the centre of the central apse stands the monumental ciborium. It consists of four columns with chamfered capitals, carved with caulicoli and central rosettes of various shapes, cruciform, round-flowered or with star motifs, surmounted by four blocks decorated on all four visible sides and in a good state of preservation. On the two columns facing the nave is carved the inscription naming the patrons and the artists who made the ciborium. The four columns rest on an altar stone, which is in turn supported by four low pillars. The cornice of the ciborium consists of a double, slightly projecting band; the decoration, identical on all four sides, consists of simple palmettes below and S-shaped motifs with curls above. Two of the four arches of the ciborium – those of the north and east faces – are decorated with various geometric interlace motifs, some of them double, and with two-strand ribbons. The other two arches – those of the south and west faces – are instead carved with volutes, vine scrolls, stylised curling leaves and motifs resembling peacock plumage. The decorations of the west face show many similarities with the ornament of the south face, just as the east side can be artistically associated with the north side. Starting from the face turned towards the nave, the four faces are decorated as follows: a) west face: two processional crosses are set on the flanks of the arches, surmounted by a horizontal band decorated with caulicoli and crosses; b) south face: the lateral space is occupied by two refined interlacing patterns of vine scrolls, leaves and bunches of grapes; c) east face: there appear two medallions with a round floral motif, to each of which two pairs of fish seem to be attached by the mouth; d) north face: two stylised and very crude peacocks resting their beaks on the curve of the arch, with two small round medallions beside them carved with geometric motifs in relief (see photo ciborium north face). The ciborium preserved at San Giorgio di Valpolicella is one of the most important early medieval monuments to have come down to us, not so much for the artistic qualities of the work as for the certainty of its date of execution (the year 712), and also because it records the names of the artists who made it, an extremely rare case for works of the Lombard and early medieval period. From what remains legible of the inscription on the columns of the ciborium, it can be deduced that the church of San Giorgio was already served in the 8th century by a numerous clergy and was provided with a baptismal font. The ciborium was made “when Liutprand was king, Domenicus bishop of Verona, Vitalianus and Tancol rectors and priests of the church, Vergandus and Theodulfus royal inspectors”; the inscription was carved by the deacon Gondelme, who also records the names of the makers of the ciborium: a certain Orso, master builder, with his pupils or disciples Juventino and Juviano (some propose a local origin for Orso and his assistants). The certain date of the ciborium’s construction points, “in its robust conception, its frank use of classicising motifs and its marked taste for nature”, to the artistic trends in vogue in the age of Liutprand, which characterised the first decades of the 8th century artistically under the name of the “Liutprandean Renaissance”. In the 9th century the same ornamental motifs “would become more regular and the patterns of the interlace denser, also as the result of a drier and more mechanical execution”. Comparisons can be made with the pluteus depicting peacocks in the Monastero di San Salvatore in Brescia. San Giorgio di Valpolicella is in many respects an anomalous monument, in which a series of peculiarities come together to form something unique in the panorama of Romanesque building in northern Italy, for a number of reasons, among them: the fact that it is one of the few monuments whose long walls and east and west gabled ends rise higher than the level of the roof slopes; the fact that it has a double and clearly marked chronology, with the west sector with a single apse dating from the 8th century and the east sector with three semicircular apses from the 12th century; the double rhythm of the interior arcades, distinguishing the east area with five columns and one pier from the west area with eight piers; and the chronological evidence offered by the small columns of the ciborium, always preserved in this church and made in the year 712, indicating the existence of a religious building on this site as early as the beginning of the 8th century. Despite all these elements and the monumental size of the pieve complex (large church, imposing bell tower, cloister and monastic buildings), the differences remain, all things considered, rather slight, when not imperceptible, presenting a very harmonious architectural arrangement for such a peripheral building, the fruit of the popular devotion of the small Christian communities of Valpolicella. CRITICISM “Very evident is the contrast between some religious buildings of the 11th century, conceived and built following the tradition based on a remarkable balance of volumes and rhythm, such as the cathedral of Torcello, San Vincenzo in Prato in Milan, the abbey church of Pomposa set against the atrium of Marzuolo of 1026, Sant’Eufemia alla Giudecca and other Venetian churches of the 11th century, the basilica of Aquileia (rebuilt by Patriarch Poppo in 1031), San Giusto in Trieste and San Lorenzo del Pasenatico in Istria, to mention only the most striking examples, and the rough and at times unbalanced power of the contemporary Romanesque buildings of Lombardy and of the neighbouring areas of the Veneto and Emilia. Among these is San Giorgio di Valpolicella, on non-uniform supports, and the nearby San Severo di Bardolino”.