Teofania absidale e missione di evangelizzazione: il caso di San Giovanni a Cividino, Bergamo (XI secolo)

An Apse Theophany and the Mission of Evangelisation: The Case of San Giovanni in Cividino, Bergamo (11th century) San Giovanni in Cividino is a small church in the Bergamo area dating to the mid-eleventh century. The apse preserves painted fragments that are contemporary with the building itself – elements that have received little scholarly attention so far, yet are of notable quality and display a distinctive iconography. The paintings are located beneath the semi-dome, which now bears a sixteenth-century Maiestas Domini. Within an ornamental frame that recalls early medieval models, the remains of eleven standing figures are visible; that most likely represented the apostles engaged in the Mission following Christ's Resurrection. Between them, at the centre of the apse, two large glass amphorae flank a small plant. Might these vessels have contained the water used for the baptism of conversion? Finally, a zoomorphic velarium runs along the dado, depicting the struggle between Good and Evil, between order and disorder.