Marmo e committenze nell’Adriatico tardoantico (V-VI secolo d.C.)

The export of marble artifacts was one of the main vehicles for spreading the artistic culture of Constantinople, reflecting at the same time the intentions and the demands of the imperial propaganda. For this reason, the distribution map of marble artifacts from Constantinople can be considered an instrument for the reconstruction of relations and interactions between the capital of the Eastern Empire and the provinces under its authority in the period until the 6th century AD, as a reflection of the interest of the Byzantine authorities in centres and regions of political, strategic and religious importance. From this point of view, the Adriatic is a privileged observatory: to the large number of sculptural materials preserved in the archaeological sites, in the museum collections and in the religious buildings of the region are added, in fact, the written sources, which allow us to place the diffusion of architectural sculpture and liturgical furnishings in marble in their historical context. The present paper aims to analyse the evidence available for the territories between Venetia and Epirus Vetus, in part touched by the Ionian Sea, but part of a single region characterised by an overall historical–cultural homogeneity.