M. MIGNOZZI, ‘Abbigliati di sontuose apparenze’: tracce bizantine nel ciclo materano del Peccato Originale, in La grotta del Peccato originale a Matera. La gravina, la grotta, gli affreschi, la cultura materiale [Marenostrum, 3], a cura di G. Bertelli, M. Mignozzi, Bari 2013, pp. 128-173, ISBN 978-88-6717-097-5.

The study examines in detail the clothing of the figures best preserved in the series of frescoes. Thus, it was possible to reassess the influence of Byzantine culture that reached these frescoes in two ways: directly for historical and political reasons, since the area had been under Byzantine rule already since the 6th century; Indirectly, due to the penetration into southern Italy of Byzantine iconography patterns, already absorbed by Benevento and Roman painters, which influenced the Matera group. Besides these aspects, however, the study on the clothing reveals the great iconographic potential of certain dresses, expressly chosen to exalt or debase the figures wearing them. Therefore, the clothing is not just a useful element in detecting the cultures involved and in attributing these paintings to a certain period, but also the tool through which the spiritual messages they implied could be emphasized.