Amalfi

The town of Amalfi lies in a hilly costal area that dominates the Tyrrhenian Sea. Amalfi is first mentioned at the end of the sixth century. Located not far from Naples, the town was a dependency of Byzantium. Difficulties resulting from pressure from the Lombards and Saracens in this region quickly led to the disintegration of Byzantine power, which took the form of a progressive emancipation. From the ninth century, the town became independent and the municipality of Amalfi—whose area extends well beyond that of the current town—was established.

A coastal town, located in an area that isn’t suitable for extensive farming, Amalfi owes its prosperity to maritime commerce. Throughout its history, the town’s merchants did in fact maintain strong links with Byzantium. During the High Middle Ages, they imported large numbers of Byzantine products and works that were traded in Byzantium. These were primarily textiles, large quantities of which were acquired by the papacy for the churches of Rome. Links with Rome are also attested by the Amalfian maritime aid given to the papacy during conflicts with the Saracens. However, from very early on in the town’s history, the merchants in Amalfi conducted trade with North Africa and relations between the town and the Muslim world were not always necessarily conflictual. More generally, Amalfian communities were present in many parts of the Mediterranean region (Antioch, Cairo, Alexandria, Mahdia, Tripoli, various towns in the Pulia region, Durrës, and, of course, Constantinople). The Norman conquest of the town in the second half of the eleventh century and the rise of other Italian maritime towns (particularly Pisa and Venice) led to a gradual decline of the town, but it remained relatively prosperous until the thirteenth century.

This commercial activity gave Amalfi a special status in the trade in artistic works. The bronze doors for Amalfi’s cathedral were commissioned by two rich merchants in the town. These magnificent works subsequently inspired other Amalfian patrons[1]. Apart from these imports, Amalfian works attest to a great capacity for combining various influences. Byzantine influences are combined with elements borrowed from the Muslim world, as attested by the frequent presence of lavish reception halls in the homes of the very wealthy. Other works show that Amalfian patrons were inspired by motifs used in certain works from Norman Italy. Examples are the marquetry that ornaments certain elements of liturgical furniture, equivalents of which are found in Sicily and Campania, and the intertwined arches in the Chiostro del Paradiso (cloister; 1266–68). And the plan of the churches in Amalfi and the surrounding area are often modelled on the plan that had been used for the new abbey of Monte Cassino at the end of the eleventh century. The work produced in the town is also characterized by references to works from Antiquity, either in the form of reused materials, or clear imitations: the crowning of the cathedral’s bell-tower can be compared to a mausoleum that still stands in the outskirts of Capua. Finally, from the second half of the twelfth century, the town and its monuments adopted certain innovations from Gothic art.

In actual fact, as has for a long time been demonstrated, the artistic production in Amalfi and the surrounding area was characterized by its eclecticism. Although this has for a long time been considered as depreciatory—indicating a lack of artistic originality—, it is now viewed in a more positive light. It’s exactly this mixture of genres—which reflects the history of a town that was influenced by works from the whole of the Mediterranean region—that constitutes the particularity of Amalfian works.