The Imperial Image of Theoderic: the Case of the Regisole of Pavia

From Firenze University Press Book: Between Ostrogothic and Carolingian Italy

Carlo Ferrari, University of Pisa

Regisole, Radiasole, or even Girasole, was the name given to the gilded bronze equestrian statue that had stood on a column in Pavia’s Piazza del Duomo since the eleventh century, and for centuries was the symbol of the city. Stolen in 1315 by Matteo Visconti’s Milanese, and again in 1527 when the city was taken by Francis I’s troops, the Regisole was recovered in both cases and put back in its place, although the parts lost during these traumatic movements had to be replaced.

On 16 May 1796, the statue was removed for the last time: on the wave of enthusiasm for the arrival of Napoleon’s army, it was decided to bring down what the Jacobins of Pavia saw as the «simulacrum of a tyrant», whose presence could not be tolerated in the same square where the Tree of Liberty had been erected3. Despite the protests of many, the Regisole was overturned and torn to pieces: the remains, kept for some years in the town hall, were sold and finally destroyed in the early nineteenth century; in 1811 the base of the column — the last remaining trace of the monument — was eventually demolished4. In 1937, on the occasion of the celebrations for the Bimillenium of the emperor Augustus, the then director of the Brera Academy, Francesco Messina, made a bronze equestrian statue similar to the lost one, which was placed at the entrance to what is still today Vicolo Regisole, in front of the Duomo. While the history of the Regisole in Pavia can be reconstructed in some detail, very little is known about the events that brought the equestrian statue from Ravenna (the city — as we shall see in a moment — from which it came) to the ancient Ticinum.

Scholars have identified three moments when the transfer of the Regisole could have taken place: 1) at the time of Theoderic the Great; 2) in the eighth century, under the Lombard kings Liutprand or Aistulf; 3) in the ninth or tenth century, as a consequence of a war between Ravenna and Pavia. In the following pages I will put forward some arguments in favour of the second hypothesis: in particular, I will argue that the transfer of the Regisole from Ravenna to Pavia can be attributed with some certainty to Aistulf, who carried it out in some unknown year between 751 and 756 — that is, after occupying the capital of the Exarchate and before being finally defeated by the Frankish king Pippin, who forced him to hand the city over to the Pope.

Although the question has already been addressed several times — even quite recently — I believe that it is not entirely unjustified to consider it once more, since a solution in the sense proposed here could add some significant elements to our knowledge of the image of Theoderic (to which the Regisole is closely related) and, above all, to the reception and use of this image in Lombard and Carolingian Italy. I will start with the sources concerning the Regisole.

DOI: 10.36253/978–88–5518–664–3.07

Read Full Text: https://books.fupress.it/chapter/the-imperial-image-of-theoderic-the-case-of-the-regisole-of-pavia/13173