Gli edifici religiosi della prima età comunale a Piacenza e nel territorio

The decision to critically re-examine and update the debated historiographical framework that for decades has been focusing on the Romanesque achievements in the Piacenza area, including some of the most important architectural and sculptural works in the artistic development of the period in Italy and beyond, derives from the role of “crossroads” that Piacenza played throughout the medieval period, during the 12th century and the establishment of municipal authority. The verification of the proposed chronologies of key monuments for the study of northern Italian Romanesque, such as the Abbey of San Savino in the city or the Collegiate Church of Castell’Arquato in the diocese, is accompanied by the search for a more precise dating of buildings traditionally considered “minor” within a historical-artistic contextualised territorial framework, in search of that monumental landscape generated by the phenomenon of territorialisation of the authorities, whether secular or religious, which can perhaps provide a renewed key to interpret the historical-artistic events of local realities. The concentration of the works in an advanced period of the 12th century has led to a re-evaluation of the role of the city council and its exponents in shaping the territory, in an attempt to understand the socio-political mechanisms behind the local figurative culture: the parallel study, therefore, of the diffusion by local sculptors of the figurative language heir to the works of the magister Nicholaus has constituted an opportunity to re-evaluate the problem around the so-called “school of Piacenza”.