Diffusione e tipologia delle cripte tra IX e XII secolo nel Nord-Est italiano: la Marca Veronese e Venezia tra ricezione di modelli esogeni e tradizione architettonica locale

Spreading and typology of crypts between the IXth and XIIth centuries in the North-East of Italy: the Marca Veronese and Venice between the reception of foreign models and local architectural tradition. This work discusses a topic, the one of crypts, which has not been much studied by the Italian art critique until nowadays; this situation is even worse if we consider the North-East region of the Italian territory. As a matter of fact, with the exception of the monumental examples of S. Marco in Venice and of the Basilica of Aquileia, the other confessiones haven't been analysed sufficiently and correlated adequately up to now. This study is structured as follows: the first part is an introductory essay subdivided into four chapters; the second part is a vast section composed by the single moments analysis. The first chapter describes the evolution of cult and liturgical practices in the use of relics in the West, trying to focus on the practical needs which crypts had to meet. The second chapter makes a close examination of different typologies of crypts in Europe, focusing on some key models and suggesting some possible functional uses. The third chapter outlines the existing critique literature upon this argument, focusing on the Italian North-East region and emphasising some historical myths which could be revised. The forth chapter introduces synthetically what will be explained in detail in the second part of the work, that is the existence in region of very different fields not only from a political point of view but also from an artistic point of view. In the second part of this study, more than 30 essays analysing the single monuments taken into consideration are presented. Each essay is made up of a close examination of the history of each monument, the existing literature and a proposal of dating.