Occasione presa/occasione persa : Kairos e il teatro della fortuna nel bassorilievo di Torcello

A veritable theatre of Fortune, of the Opportunity, taken or lost, is represented allegorically in a relief of the cathedral of Torcello (XI C AD); a series of figures parade around the central image of Occasio/Kairos, depicted with a razor and a scale in his hands, while,fast and unstable, is advancing on two winged spheres attached to his ankles. On the left , a young man quickly catches him, while on the right, a second bearded male figure, therefore more adult, uselessly extends an arm behind his head to grab him. Two female figures complete the scene: on the far right, Metanoia/Paenitentia; on the extreme left , another female figure, Pronoia/Praevidentia who is busy crowning the head of the young man who succeeded in seizing the right moment. Surprisingly, the medieval basrelief preserves a precise and detailed iconographic memory of the refl ection on the theme of Kairos/Occasio, as it occours in Classical, Late-ancient, and Byzantine literary and iconographic sources.