Il Tesoro della Chiesa Madre di Lentini: origini, vicissitudini e sopravvivenza delle testimonianze d'arte bizantina.

This contribution concerns three Byzantine artworks housed within the Chiesa Madre in Lentini, a town (located midway between Syracuse and Catania) with a millenary history dating back to ancient 'Leontinoi', the homeland of the sophist Gorgias. Lentini’s history has been marked by a series of devastating earthquakes, the most catastrophic being the infamous 1693 earthquake that nearly razed the entire eastern side of Sicily. The artworks under examination here are an ivory casket with aniconic decoration of continuous circles, a steatite staurotheke featuring the effigies of Saints Helena and Constantine, and an icon of the Hodegetria, known as ‘Madonna del Castello’. These works have been studied through close examination of their forms and technical-executive methods, a targeted photographic campaign, and in-depth research into sources, scholarly bibliography, and erudite authors from the late 17th to the early 20th century. The ivory casket is likely a reliquary originally designed to house a relic of the Passion, as suggested by the depiction of the Cross of Golgotha on its front panel. Close observation of the object revealed an embellishment intervention executed between the 17th and 18th centuries, consisting of crude carvings of a circular motif and the application of gilding. This alteration led previous studies to erroneously associate the artefact with the renowned “rosette” caskets of the Macedonian period. However, in the portions of the decoration spared from this modification, the fine original craftsmanship can be appreciated: a continuous series of concentric mouldings with grooves enriched by red and green mastic. This decorative technique closely resembles that of an 8th-century ivory pyxis found at an archaeological site in Jordan, suggesting that the Lentini casket may be a rare Byzantine product of the Iconoclastic era. The steatite staurotheke, on the other hand, originates from a Constantinopolitan atelier under imperial patronage, likely created in the late 11th century: this chronology is based on formal comparisons with other Byzantine artefacts. Although damaged and incomplete, the Lentini steatite remains a valuable testimony as it retains traces of original blue and purple pigments. The “Madonna del Castello” is a monumental mid-13th-century work, a Marian effigy painted in tempera and gold on a wooden panel nearly two metres in height. According to an ancient legend, it was attributed to Saint Luke and believed to have miraculously arrived from the East, floating on the sea. This investigation has established that the painted inscription at the base, dedicating the work to the people of Lentini (“LUCAS AD LEONTINOS”), is original and not a 17thcentury addition as previously thought. The appellation “Madonna del Castello” is also authentic, as evidenced by a 1567 inventory describing it within the eponymous church built in her honour three centuries earlier within the Castrum Vetus overlooking the town of Lentini.