Il vetro e la sua immagine: le testimonianze iconografiche nella Calabria medievale

This paper concerns first of all the connection between vitreous artifacts and their “figures”, their iconography in expression other than the raw material; at the end, it concerns the representation of artifacts on iconographies referred to miniature, frescoes, mosaics and paintings. The high perishableness of glass material and thesherds recycle for reuse makes archaeological data lesser than those coming from ceramic artifacts; with this respect iconographical representation is an opportunity to help the reconstruction of tipologies, showing the whole artifact and, at the same time, reflects more elaborate artistical and cultural influences. This way allows to compare objects and images realized in medieval time on regional scale, to identify mutualities and origins between different workshops and to get important informations about artifacts and craftsmen movements. Here we tried to consider the relationship between archaeological glass vessels coming from recents medieval excavations in Calabria and their iconographic images, through a methodological approach based around the “object iconography” of glass equipment.