I Barresi di Pietraperzia. Una corte feudale tra medioevo ed età moderna

This study focuses on the artistic patronage and, in particular, on the architectural activities promoted by a family of the feudal aristocracy in Sicily, the Barresi of Pietraperzia. This is a small town located in the hinterland of the island, currently in the province of Enna. In this place, where the Barresi resided permanently, between the Fifteenth and Sixteenth centuries there developed a cultured and sophisticated aristocratic court, whose heart was the castle of Pietraperzia. This occurred especially thanks to two members of the family, Giovanni Antonio II and his son Matteo, who were in good terms with authoritative exponents of the scientific, artistic, and literary culture of the time. The role of patrons and donors was crucial at different levels, from urban concepts in the towns that they dominated to the architectural initiatives promoted both in the main fief and in Palermo as well as in other minor fiefs, extending to the commission of precious artistic artifacts.This survey has allowed to find out that the main interventions were carried out in the period between the Seventies of the Fifteenth century and the Thirties of the Sixteenth century, corresponding to a delicate phase of transition between the Middle Ages and the Modern Age, which is effectively demonstrated by works of great originality of expression, among which emerges in particular the Pietraperzia castle.This study is characterized by an approach of an interdisciplinary nature which is based on extensive archival and iconographic research and on the survey of the still existing architectures, which are now reduced to ruins (the Pietraperzia castle) or have been radically transformed (the Mother Church of Pietraperzia): on these grounds, it was possible to propose reconstructive hypotheses allowing to restore them to their original Sixteenth-century condition.