点评:San Michele amazes the viewer with the splendor of its façade decorated with small columns and arches, with the geometric perfection of its plan (which can be appreciated from all sides, as the church today is free from adjacent buildings, unlike the cathedral of San Martino), with the elegance of its bell tower. But perhaps most of all it amazes for its visibility in the center of the city, in the square which - as anyone, who is not totally unaware of what they see, knows - coincides with the ancient Roman Forum. There are many visitors who, due to this central position and its grandeur, mistake it for the cathedral church of Lucca - which San Michele has never been.
The construction history of San Michele is similar in many ways to that of the cathedral of San Martino: the mighty stylistic example of the cathedral of Pisa, built almost all at once thanks to the wealth accumulated by the city after the sacking of Arab Palermo, is a reference in nearby Lucca: the elegant sculpted or inlaid columns, monochrome or multicolored, and the little arches of the facade make San Michele a prodigious vision. But as in San Martino, also in San Michele the Pisan lesson is combined with that of the Lombard masters, first and foremost Guidetto da Como who worked on both facades.
Here, however, the influences of Northern Italy are more limited. Above all, the mighty portico that functions almost as a narthex, which gives San Martino reminiscences that can be frankly defined as Romanesque, is missing. On the contrary, in San Michele the façade appears slender, ethereal, almost too daring in its verticality: the large statue of the church’s eponym, the archangel Michael, on the summit, seems to legitimize this impetus: Michael is the archangel of summits, of daring heights; as indicated among others by the Mont Saint Michael both of France and England, or the Sagra di San Michele near Turin.
This seems to me the most effective interpretative key of the church that stands “in the Forum” of Lucca.
翻译:圣米歇尔教堂以其华丽的立面、装饰着小柱子和拱门、完美的几何平面(可以从各个角度欣赏,因为与圣马蒂诺大教堂不同,如今的教堂不受相邻建筑物的影响)和优雅的钟楼令参观者惊叹不已。但也许最令人惊奇的是它位于市中心,广场上可见度很高——任何对所见事物有所了解的人都知道——它与古罗马广场重合。由于其中心位置和宏伟气势,许多游客误以为它是卢卡大教堂——圣米歇尔教堂从未是卢卡大教堂。
圣米歇尔大教堂的建造历史在很多方面与圣马蒂诺大教堂相似:比萨大教堂的宏伟风格几乎是一次性建成的,这要归功于阿拉伯巴勒莫被洗劫后城市积累的财富,附近的卢卡也参考了比萨大教堂:优雅的雕刻或镶嵌柱子,单色或多色,以及立面的小拱门使圣米歇尔大教堂成为一道壮观的风景。但和圣马蒂诺一样,圣米歇尔大教堂也结合了比萨的教训和伦巴第大师的教训,首先是科莫的盖德托,他负责了两个立面。
然而,在这里,意大利北部的影响更为有限。最重要的是,几乎起到前厅作用的宏伟门廊不见了,这让圣马蒂诺大教堂让人想起了可以坦率地定义为罗马式的教堂。相反,圣米歇尔教堂的立面显得纤细、飘逸,几乎在垂直性上过于大胆:教堂同名的大天使迈克尔雕像位于顶峰,似乎使这种动力合法化:迈克尔是顶峰的大天使,大胆的高度;法国和英国的圣迈克尔山,或都灵附近的圣米歇尔教堂等都表明了这一点。
在我看来,这是对卢卡“广场上”的教堂最有效的解释。