San Michele at Pavia

San Michele was seen by Lindsay in 1847 as the first of the great Lombard churches of Italy and the beginning in Italy of the tradition of which ‘we are all heirs’ (Lindsay (1847) Vol. I p.68) - its prototype in the terms that Ruskin uses. At Notebook M2 p.126 it reminds Ruskin of Iffley and Winchester.

This church is now dated to the beginning of the 12th Century; Ruskin, like Lindsay and Willis, believed it to have been much earlier. There was a church of San Michele on the site in the 7th Century, but there is no evidence that the 12th century rebuilding recreated the same forms. On the dating see also Ruskin's much later views at Works, 34.131 [n/a].

It is important to Ruskin's view of Venetian history as the church where Barbarossa, who submitted to Pope Alexander III in the porch of St. Mark’s, was crowned Emperor. It is important to Ruskin's view of architectural history as providing, together with Sant’Ambrogio in Milan, the type of Lombard Romanesque, with the clustered piers which are precursors of Gothic. Works, 9.40 characterises the markers of Lombard style:

the whole body of the Northern architecture, represented by that of the Lombards, may be described as rough but majestic work, round arched, with grouped shafts, added vaulting shafts, and endless imagery of active life and fantastic superstitions. In that form the Lombards brought it into Italy in the seventh century and it remains to this day in St. Ambrogio of Milan, and St. Michele of Pavia.

Gally Knight (1844) Section XIII records some questioning of the dating of the church, but for him and for Street (1855) it was a source for the great churches of the Rhine, including the Romanesque churches of Cologne. Its date, its status as an Imperial chapel, analogous to St. Mark's in Venice, and its situation on the Imperial route between Pisa and Aachen were the basis of its perceived importance.

There are notes on San Michele at Verona Book pp.20-28 and at Notebook M2 pp.126 and following, with a detailed account of the 'Lombard animals' of the frieze on the West Front at Notebook M2 p.129.

At Notebook M2 p.126 ‘San Michele, Pavia’ is a side heading, separated from the body of the text by a bracket omitted in The Ruskin Library Transcript T7B.

San Michele West Front Photograph of San Michele West Front here, with information here

[Version 0.05: May 2008]