Rinascenze angioine in Terra di Puglia: il caso del Colosso di Barletta, in

The studies about the Late Antique bronze statue which is conserved in the city of Barletta (Apulia) concerned until today the dating of the work and the iconography of the character represented. Thanks to the results of the last restoration, which made it possible to date more securely the reuse of the Late Antique statue to Late Antique around the XIV century, attention was paid for the first time to the reasons that relaunched the presence of the statue in the Medieval city. The reinvestment of the artwork was accompanied by a new identity, that of the Byzantine emperor Eraclio, who was the hero of the stories linked to the recovery of the cross of Jesus and to the promotion of its cult, symbol of devotion but also, during the period of the Crusades, means of political propaganda. The contribution analyzes the cultural and historical contest that led to the setup of the statue in a site undergoing urban transformation, which also involved the church of Santo Sepolcro in front of which the statue was placed, and the reuse as a political element, representative of the Angevin dynasty, in the attempt propose a more precise dating.