Scultura romanica allo specchio: la questione lombarda e l'Italia centrale

The paper critically reassesses the historiographical dominance of the Lombard region in interpretations of Italian Romanesque sculpture. It argues that, from the late 19th century onward, Lombardy was constructed as the central axis of national narratives on Romanesque art, while the sculptural production of Central Italy was marginalized or interpreted through Lombard models. Through an analysis rooted in cartographic representations and scholarly narratives, the study traces the ideological and nationalist foundations of this paradigm and its consolidation through canonical art historians and local scholarship. Focusing on regions such as Umbria, Marche, Abruzzo, and Molise, the work highlights the formal diversity and local identities of Central Italian sculpture, advocating a polycentric and more nuanced understanding of Romanesque sculpture in Italy and questioning the long-standing primacy of Lombard art.