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Teodelapio

1962 sculpturesItaly sculpture stubsMonuments and memorials in ItalySculptures by Alexander CalderSpoleto
Modellino del Teodelapio di Alexander Calder Museo Carandente, Palazzo Collicola Arti visive, Spoleto
Modellino del Teodelapio di Alexander Calder Museo Carandente, Palazzo Collicola Arti visive, Spoleto

Teodelapio is the only monumental stabile sculpture in Italy by Alexander Calder. Situated in Spoleto it was designed and donated to the city for the 1962 edition of Festival dei Due Mondi. It was part of the open-air exhibition "Sculture in Città" (Sculptures in the city) organized by Giovanni Carandente. The sculptor had a long correspondence with Carandente about how to make it and where to place it. Starting from the idea of realizing a mobile, Calder chose to build a stabile. The sculpture is made of black painted steel and takes its name from that of a lombard king. Located in front of Spoleto's train station, it has become a symbol of the city. The model was sent to the Italsider factory in Savona where it was magnified 27 times and built in 1 cm-thick steel used for hulls, then brought to Spoleto where it was assembled and welded together. Carandente about the origin of the name of the sculpture: At the Hotel dei Duchi in Spoleto, Calder found some copies of old prints depicting Lombard dukes. Looking at the pictures of duke Theodelap with his sharp-pointed crown, Calder said without hesitation: "This is the name of the object"

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Teodelapio (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Teodelapio
Piazzale Giovanni Polvani,

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N 42.7477 ° E 12.7365 °
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Piazzale Giovanni Polvani

Piazzale Giovanni Polvani
06049
Umbria, Italy
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Modellino del Teodelapio di Alexander Calder Museo Carandente, Palazzo Collicola Arti visive, Spoleto
Modellino del Teodelapio di Alexander Calder Museo Carandente, Palazzo Collicola Arti visive, Spoleto
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Spoleto Cathedral
Spoleto Cathedral

Spoleto Cathedral (Italian: Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta; Duomo di Spoleto) is the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Spoleto-Norcia created in 1821, previously that of the diocese of Spoleto, and the principal church of the Umbrian city of Spoleto, in Italy. It is dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The church is essentially an example of Romanesque architecture, with a nave and two side-aisles crossed by a transept, although subsequently modified. It was built from the second half of the twelfth century after the city had been devastated by Frederick Barbarossa's troops, over an area where there had previously stood an earlier cathedral, dedicated to Saint Primianus (San Primiano) and destroyed by the emperor. A notable external porch and the belfry were added in the fifteenth and sixteenth century respectively. The façade is divided into three bands. The lower one has a fine architraved door with sculpted door-posts. Two pulpits are provided on each side of the porch. The upper bands are separated by rose windows and ogival arches. The most striking feature of the upper façade is the Byzantine-hieratic mosaic portraying Christ giving a Benediction, signed by one Solsternus (1207). He signed his work with the inscription "Doctor Solsternus, hac summus in arte modernus" (doctor Solsternus, supremely modern in his art ), calling himself an outstanding modern artist. Nothing else is known about him. He was certainly ahead of his contemporaries, because it would take half a century before the mosaics in Roman churches would surpass his style. The part of the belfry contemporary with the church reuses Roman and early medieval elements. . The interior was significantly modified in the 17th–18th centuries, though it has kept the original Cosmatesque floor of the central nave remains. Another survival is the frescoed apse with four Scenes from the Life of the Virgin Mary, begun in 1467 by Filippo Lippi and completed two years later by his pupils Fra' Diamante and Piermatteo Lauro de' Manfredi da Amelia. Lippi is buried in the south arm of the transept. Also noteworthy are the altar cross by Alberto Sozio, dated 1187, a Byzantine icon donated to the city by Barbarossa as a sign of peace and the frescoes by Pinturicchio in the Chapel of the Bishop of Eroli. Other frescoes from the 16th century are in the next chapel. The church also contains a polychrome wood statue of the Madonna (14th century) and a choir (16th century) with painted altar and tabernacle, in the Chapel of the Relics, under which lies the crypt of the former cathedral of San Primiano.