This summer many of our graduate students are traveling across the U.S. and abroad to conduct research for their dissertations. Our new series, Reports from the Field, will feature portions of our graduate student’s research and travels. This June, Tania Kolarik (Ph.D. Candidate) has been traveling within North-Central Italy conducting research for her dissertation, “The Fabric of the Trecento.”
In the Italian city of Lucca, there are two major churches whose façades were created by the workshop of the artist Guidetto. This workshop employed an intarsia inlay technique that involved carving figures and motifs into white marble and filling it in with green marble imported from Prato. Tania is looking at the connections between these façades and Lucca’s famous textile industry that was known across the global Medieval Mediterranean.Featured Photo: Cathedral of San Martino, façade late 12th–early 13th c.
Photo: San Michele in Foro, façade late 12th–early 13th c.