Plutei of Theodota explained

The Plutei of Theodota are two mid 8th-century Lombard marble bas-reliefs or plutei from the oratory of San Michele alla Pusterla in Italy.[1] They are now held in the Civic Museums of Pavia. Naturalistic in style, they were produced during the Liutprandean Renaissance.[2] One shows the Tree of Life between two griffins and the other shows a cross and font between two peacocks.[3]

They are named after Theodota, a Byzantine noblewoman who became the lover of king Cunipert (688–700), who later placed her in the Santa Maria Teodote monastery, also known as Santa Maria della Pusterla[4] (now the Diocesan Seminary for Pavia), near which was later built the oratorio di San Michele.

References

  1. Lida Capo, 'Commento' in Paolo Diacono, Storia dei Longobardi, pp. 556-557.
  2. Pierluigi De Vecchi, Elda Cerchiari, 'I Longobardi in Italia', in L'arte nel tempo, Milano, Bompiani, 1991, Vol. 1, tomo II, pp. 305-317.,
  3. Pierluigi De Vecchi-Elda Cerchiari, I Longobardi in Italia, p. 311.
  4. Paolo Diacono, Historia Langobardorum, V, 37 in Book: Georg Waitz. Monumenta Germaniae Historica. 1878. Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum saec. VI–IX, 12–219.