Soffitti lignei dipinti: una prima ricognizione su scala nazionale

The Department of Architecture and Design of the University of Genoa is temporary storing some medieval painted joists and planks, collected from a Genoa palace under restoration. These wooden elements are now subject of a research project and a didactic workshop developed by the students of the Graduate School in Architectural and Landscape Heritage. In preparation for the workshop, the students developed a bibliographical research on wooden ceilings, materials and decoration techniques dating back to the Middle Age in Italy. A first result of the study shows that the research context is not systematic. Therefore, the paper focuses on those Italian regions where this phenomenon has been already analysed: Liguria, Piemonte, Valle d’Aosta, Lombardia, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Emilia-Romagna, Umbria and Marche, Sicilia. The comparison between the cases highlights different characteristics in accordance with the period of construction, contractors, typology of architectures and geographical area.