Padova e Aquileia. Per un riesame dei cicli dipinti nella reggia carrarese all’epoca di Francesco Novello

This essay explores previously neglected aspects of the Patriarchate of Aquileia. Indeed, rather than focusing on the religious features of the Patriarchate, it examines the role of the Patriarchs as feudal lords and the crucial part they played during the Trecento in the fights between the Guelphs and the Ghibellins. It tackles this issue from an unconventional perspective, i.e. the relationship between the Patriarchs and other feudal lords in Italy, namely the Da Carrara, lords of Padua. By exploring political strategies of the Da Carrara, and the actions they undertook to both protect the Patriarchate against its enemies and to extend their power and dominion on the Aquileian territory, this essay recovers a sense of the transnational, political relevance that the Patriarchate once enjoyed. In addition, it sheds new light on the frescoes that once adorned the Reggia of the Da Carrara in Padua, proposing a new reading of the episodes painted in the Sala delle Brentelle, hence considering visual culture as a means to express political concerns and propaganda, while also recovering a sense of the importance that now scarcely considered historical events had in the past.