Una comunità greca e un Ecce Homo (“alla greca”) ad Avellino. Il mistero di un’immagine pittorica, tra scienza e fede

Abstract

The paper focuses on the complex interpretative question of an unusual medieval fresco, perhaps a unique example in the history of western art, located in a room of the surviving structure of the Church of S.Paolo in Avellino, near the Castle. It is almost certainly an Ecce Homo!, made no later than the twelfth century. According to characteristic Turkish hairstyle, singular Byzantine style aspects, and for certain unpublished iconographic aspects, it reveals the original, very personal religious and cultural position of the unknown author, probably a “Greek” painter active in the conspicuous Greek community who settled in Avellino in the Earth (RampaTofara) behind and around the Castle since 6th century. Through an in-depth stylistic and iconographic analysis of the work, the essay also compares the painting with the most recent scientific results emerged from the shroud studies, because these, in many ways, are strangely, miraculously, anticipated by the fresco in question.