Resumen de Venezia o Costantinopoli?: sulla scultura bizantina a Venezia e nell'entroterra veneto e ancora sulla "Beata Vergine della Cintura di Costantinopoli" di Treviso
The debate on Byzantine relief icons has been conditioned ever since by the prevailing Venetian location of their extant exemplaries: as a result, many of these artefacts are reputed "Venetian copies" without any further supporting evidence. This paper focuses on the (re)attribution to the Byzantine milieu of some works of debated provenance, such as "St. Demetrius" and some "Vlachernítissa" icons of San Marco in Venice, plus the "Beata Vergine della Cintura di Costantinopoli" icon of the Visitazione monastery at Treviso. Carving methods, details of the weaponry, quality of the drapery, and original function of such artworks, all point to Byzantium (none of their features is related with Venetian sculpture, neither with the sculpture of the Byzantine periphery). Of special interest is the icon the "Hodighítria" of Treviso, an exceptional wooden image-reliquiary attributable to the Macedonian Renaissance (Xth cent.), probably coming from Constantinople, which was hidden under a Crusader silver cover in the XIIIth century.
