Immaginario iconografico e costruzione narrativa: il ‘caso’ san Fiorenzo

The Church of San Fiorenzo in Bastia, near Mondovì, preserves a remarkable late Gothic fresco cycle that constitutes not only an important artistic testimony but also the earliest and, for a long time, the only known hagiographic source concerning Saint Fiorenzo. The painted Vita unfolds across nine panels that narrate the saint’s renunciation of arms, his preaching and miracles, martyrdom, and posthumous interventions, culminating in the episode of the miraculous expulsion of serpents. This final scene, distinct from conventional hagiographic motifs, establishes a link between the Bastia cycle and the broader European tradition surrounding figures named Fiorenzo, particularly the hermit of Norcia described by Gregory the Great and Saint Florent of Anjou. Through a careful comparative analysis, the study demonstrates how the Bastia legend likely arose from a process of onomastic and narrative conflation, whereby the miraculous episode of the serpents—originally attributed to the Umbrian anchorite—was transferred to the local saint. The iconographic program, enriched with parallels to the Imitatio Christi and a pronounced anti-Jewish visual rhetoric, elevates the narrative from simple legend to theological allegory. Ultimately, the frescoes of Bastia reveal the mechanisms through which local devotion, artistic invention, and inherited hagiographic structures interacted to construct a distinct yet derivative saintly identity. The resulting cycle thus stands as a paradigmatic example of how medieval imagery and storytelling combined to articulate and legitimize regional cults through familiar symbolic grammars.