Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wg55d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-23T09:52:33.580Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Abstract and vegetal design in the San Zeno chapel, Rome: the ornamental setting of an early medieval funerary programme

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

Get access

Abstract

Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 See Ward-Perkins, B., From Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1984), 80Google Scholar, for the chapel of Aripert I (653–61) and his descendants at Pavia.

2 See Borgolte, M., Petrusnachfolge und Kaiserimitation. Die Grablegen der Päpste, ihres Genese und Traditionsbildung (Göttingen, 1989), 94117Google Scholar, for the funerary chapels of the popes between the end of the seventh and the mid-ninth centuries, with references to the Liber Pontificalis.

3 Duchesne, L. (ed.), Liber Pontificalis II (Paris, 1892), 53 and 58Google Scholar.

4 Recent bibliography of the San Zeno chapel: Klass, M. Pautler, The Chapel of St. Zeno in St. Prassede in Rome (Bryn Mawr, Ph.D. thesis, 1972)Google Scholar; Brenk, B., ‘Zum Bildprogramm der Zenokapelle in Rom’, Archivio Español de Arqueologia 45–7 (19731974), 213–21Google Scholar; Mackie, G., The Iconographic Programme of the Mosaics of the San Zeno Chapel at Santa Prassede, Rome (University of Victoria, Master's thesis, 1984)Google Scholar; Asmussen, M.A., ‘The chapel of S. Zeno in S. Prassede in Rome. New aspects on the iconography’, Analecta Romana Instituti Danici 25 (1986), 6787Google Scholar; Mackie, G., ‘The San Zeno chapel: a prayer for salvation’, Papers of the British School at Rome 57 (1989), 172–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wisskirchen, R., Das Mosaikprogramm von S. Prassede in Rom (Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum 17) (Münster, 1990)Google Scholar; Wisskirchen, R., Die Mosaiken der Kirche Santa Prassede in Rom (Zaberns Bildbände zur Archäologie 5) (Mainz am Rhein, 1992)Google Scholar.

5 O'Connor, R.B., ‘The medieval history of the double-axe motif’, American Journal of Archaeology 24 (1920), 151CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Germain, S., Les mosaïques de Timgad (Paris, 1969)Google Scholar; Ovadiah, A., Geometric and Floral Motifs in Ancient Mosaics (Rome, 1980), 145Google Scholar.

7 Dwyer, E.J., ‘Sculpture and its display in private houses’, in Pompeii and the Vesuvian Landscape (Washington, D.C., 1979), 64Google Scholar.

8 Kelly, A., Motifs in Opus sectile and its Painted Imitation from the Tetrarchy to Justinian (Columbia University, Ph.D. thesis, 1986), 94–7Google Scholar.

9 Picard, M.G.-Ch., Bulletin archéologique du comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques (19461949), 175Google Scholar; and Germain, , Les mosaïques de Timgad (above, n. 6), 117Google Scholar.

10 O'Connor, , ‘The medieval history of the double-axe motif’ (above, n. 5), 154–5Google Scholar.

11 Paris, Bibl. Nat. nouv. acqu. lat. 1203; O'Connor, , ‘The medieval history of the double-axe motif’ (above, n. 5), 152Google Scholar.

12 Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, pal. lat. 50, and Bibl. Doc. Batthyaneum, Alba Julia. See facsimile edition (with an introduction by Braunfels, W.), The Lorsch Gospels (New York, 1967)Google Scholar.

13 Paris, Bibl. Nat. lat. 8850, fol. 81v.

14 For the Egino Codex, Belting, H., ‘Probleme der Kunstgeschichte Italiens im Frühmittelalter’, Frühmittelalterliche Studien 1 (1967), 94143Google Scholar; Camille, M., ‘Word, text image and the early church fathers in the Egino Codex’, in Testo e immagine nell'alto medioevo I (Settimane di studio sull'alto medioevo 41) (Spoleto, 1994), 6594Google Scholar; and Mitchell, J., ‘The display of script and the uses of painting in Longobard Italy’, in Testo e immagine nell'alto medioevo II (Settimane di studio sull'alto medioevo 41) (Spoleto, 1994), 887–951, esp. pp. 937–9Google Scholar.

15 Examples cited are illustrated in O'Connor, , ‘The medieval history of the double-axe motif’ (above, n. 5), 157–9, figs 3–5Google Scholar.

16 O'Connor, , ‘The medieval history of the double-axe motif’ (above, n. 5), 155Google Scholar: ‘the arrowpoints or ivy-leaves of the original design are indicated by three small dots. These dots are a persistent characteristic of the motif in illumination continuing, with variation in number, down to the twelfth century’.

17 Illustrated in Wilpert, J. and Schumacher, W.N., Die Römischen Mosaiken der Kirchlichen Bauten vom IV.-XIII. Jahrhundert (Freiburg, 1946), pl. 84Google Scholar.

18 Buchtal, H., ‘A Byzantine miniature of the Fourth Evangelist, and its relatives’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 12 (1961), 129–39Google Scholar, concludes that the Court School miniatures (except those of Godescalc) draw on models of different date and origin, all Italian with strong Byzantine influence, and all made before iconoclasm. See also Rosenbaum, E., ‘The Evangelist portraits of the Ada School’, Art Bulletin 38 (1956), 8190, esp. p. 82CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 Illustrated in Bottari, S., Ravenna, Mausoleo di Galla Placidia (Bologna, 1966), 76Google Scholar, where the white outline and triple dots are well shown.

20 John 15.1–7: ‘I am the True Vine, you are the branches’.

21 See Paulinus's inscription over the door of his Basilica Apostolorum at Nola, where the Christian soul was twice represented by the dove. Goldschmidt, R.C., Paulinus' Churches at Nola (Amsterdam, 1940), 38–9Google Scholar.

22 See below, section on ‘The celestial flowers’, for a discussion of the symbolism of the flowers of paradise.

23 Toynbee, J. and Ward-Perkins, J.B., ‘Peopled scrolls, a Hellenistic motif in imperial art’, Papers of the British School at Rome 18 (1950), 243CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

24 Toynbee, and Ward-Perkins, , ‘Peopled scrolls’ (above, n. 23), 23Google Scholar.

25 See John 15. 1–7, and also Daniélou, J., Primitive Christian Symbols (London, 1964), ch. 2Google Scholar, ‘The vine and the tree of life’.

26 Maguire, H., Earth and Ocean, The Terrestrial World in Early Byzantine Art (Pennsylvania/London, 1987), 30–1Google Scholar.

27 Maguire, , Earth and Ocean (above, n. 26), 76–7, 80Google Scholar.

28 Vita S. Stephani junioris, col. 1120, translated in Mango, C., The Art of the Byzantine Empire 312–1453. Sources and Documents (Englewood Cliffs, 1972), 152–3Google Scholar. See also Rouan, M.-F., ‘Une lecture ‘iconoclaste’ de la vie d'Etienne le Jeune’, Travaux et Mémoires 8 (1981), 415–36Google Scholar.

29 Mackie, , ‘The San Zeno chapel’ (above, n. 4), 172–99, esp. p. 199Google Scholar.

30 This was also done in the left niche, where the anastasis mosaic features a strigillated sarcophagus, which resembles the late antique ones that Paschal supplied for the relics which he placed in Santa Prassede. See Mackie, , ‘The San Zeno chapel’ (above, n. 4), 191–2Google Scholar.

31 Ovadiah, , Geometric and Floral Motifs in Ancient Mosaics (above, n. 6), 124–5Google Scholar.

32 See Maguire, E., Maguire, H.P. and Flowers, M.J. Duncan, Art and Holy Powers on the Early Christian House (Exhibition catalogue, Krannert Art Museum) (Urbana, Ill., 1989), 233, esp. p. 6Google Scholar. Ishould like to thank Dr Leslie Brubaker for this reference.

33 Illustrated in Pantoni, A., San Vincenzo al Volturno e la cripta dell'abate Epifanio 824/842 (Montecassino, 1970), 59, pl. 63Google Scholar.

34 Baldoria, N., ‘La capella di San Zenone a Santa Prassede’, Archivio Storico dell'Arte 4 (1891), 256–71, esp. p. 262Google Scholar.

35 Apollonj-Ghetti, B.M., Santa Prassede (Le chiese di Roma illustrate 66) (Rome, 1961), 6677Google Scholar.

36 Marcellinus, Ammianus, Rerum gestarum libri qui supersunt (ed. and trans. Rolfe, J.C.; Loeb edition) (19351939), 16.8.36Google Scholar.

37 Gonosová, A., ‘The formation and sources of floral semis and floral diaper patterns reexamined’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 39 (1988), 227–38, esp. p. 229Google Scholar.

38 Kitzinger, E., Byzantine Art in the Making (Cambridge, 1977), 88–9Google Scholar.

39 Liber Pontificalis (above, n. 3), 52–63.

40 Illustrated in Wilpert, J. and Schumacher, W.N., Die Römischen Mosaiken der Kirchlichen Bauten vom IV.-XIII Jahrhundert (Freiburg, 1946)Google Scholar.

41 Nordhagen, P.J., ‘Un problema di carattere iconografico e tecnico a S. Prassede’, in Roma e l'età carolingia (Rome, 1976), 159–66Google Scholar.

42 Peterson, E., ‘La croce e la preghiera verso oriente’, Ephemerides Liturgicae 59 (1945), 61ff., esp. pp. 62–3Google Scholar: ‘ma q'uand e die la croce precede l'arrivo del signore? La risposta non piu esitare un momento: il giorno del suo secondo arrivo nel mondo’. See also Mackie, G., The Early Medieval Chapel: Decoration, Form and Function (University of Victoria, Ph.D. thesis, 1991), 166–7Google Scholar.

43 Grabar, A., L'iconoclasme byzantin: dossier archéologique (Paris, 1957), pl. 89Google Scholar.

44 Cormack, R., ‘The apse mosaics of S. Sophia at Thessaloniki’, Deltion tes Christianikes Archaiologikes Hetaireias 10 (19801981), 111–36, esp. p. 116Google Scholar.

45 Kitzinger, E., Byzantine Art in the Making (Cambridge, 1977), 54 and 138, n. 24Google Scholar. See also Deichmann, F.W., Ravenna II (Wiesbaden, 1974), 1, 88Google Scholar.

46 Gonosová, , ‘The formation and sources of early Byzantine floral semis and floral diaper patterns re-examined’ (above, n. 37), 230, 236 and fig. 6Google Scholar for the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, and 230 for the archbishops' chapel.

47 Mackie, , ‘The San Zeno chapel’ (above, n. 4), 183–4Google Scholar.

48 Ovadiah, , Geometric and Floral Motifs in Ancient Mosaics (above, n. 6), 122Google Scholar.

49 Illustrated in Cima, M., ‘Il ‘prezioso arredo’ degli Horti Lamiani, in Cima, M. and La Rocca, E. (eds), Le tranquille dimore degli dei, La residenza imperiale degli Horti Lamiani (Rome, 1986), 125, pls 44–5Google Scholar.

50 Cima, , ‘Il ‘prezioso arredo’ degli Horti Lamiani (above, n. 49), 124–8Google Scholar.

51 Brown, K., ‘The mosaics of San Vitale: evidence for the attribution of some early Byzantine jewellery to court workshops’, Gesta 18 (1971), 5763CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

52 Mackie, , The Iconographic Programme of the Mosaics of the San Zeno Chapel (above, n. 4), 132Google Scholar.

53 Hammond, N.G.L. and Scullard, H.H., Oxford Classical Dictionary (second edition) (Oxford, 1970), 936–7Google Scholar.

54 Ambrose, , Hexameron (trans. Savage, J.J.) (New York, 1961)Google Scholar, Day Three, Homily 5: chapter 11, 48.

55 H. Leclercq has collected many examples in Cabrol, F. and Leclercq, H., Dictionnaire d'archéologie chretienne et de liturgie (Paris, 1914), XV:1, ‘rose’, and V:2, ‘fleurs’Google Scholar.

56 Prudentius, , Cathemerinon, V vs. 113–4 (trans. Thomson, J.J.; Loeb edition): ‘illic purpureus tecta rosariis omnis ergrat humus caltaque pinguia’Google Scholar.

57 Musarillo, H. (ed. and trans.), The Acts of the Christian Martyrs (Oxford, 1972), 118–21Google Scholar: ‘factum est nobis spatium grande, quod late fuit quasi viridiarium arbores habens rosae et omne genus flares’.

58 Illustrated in Krautheimer, R., Rome. Profile of a City (Princeton, 1980), 90, fig. 78Google Scholar. ‘Celestial flowers’: a phrase coined by Rosenbaum, , ‘The Evangelist portraits of the Ada School’ (above, n. 18), 82Google Scholar.

59 Ihm, C., Die Programme der Christlicher Apsismalerei vom Vierten Jahrhundert bis zur Mitte des Achten Jahrhunderts (Wiesbaden, 1960), 28 and pl. 8, fig. 1Google Scholar, reproducing Ciampini, , Vetera Monumenta 1Google Scholar, pl. 4b. Ihm refers to lilies in the text, though the drawing appears to show roses only.

60 Rosenbaum, , ‘The Evangelist portraits of the Ada School’ (above, n. 18), 83Google Scholar.

61 Baldracco, E., ‘Note sull'Oratorio di San Zenone’, Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana 19 (1942), 185210, esp. p. 190Google Scholar.

62 Niermeyer, J.F., Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus (Leiden, 1976), 761Google Scholar; Paul the Deacon (c. 720-c 800), Scriptores Rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum, saec. VI-IX (Monumenta Germaniae Historica) (Hanover, 1878), lib. 5, c. 31, Paradisus: ‘His diebus Domnus papa Romanae ecclesiae locum qui paradisus dicitur ante basilicam b. apostoli Petri magnis marmoribus mirifice stravit’.

63 See Cabrol, and Leclercq, , Dictionnaire d'archéologie chretienne et de liturgie (above, n. 55), XIII: 2, cols 1578–82Google Scholar for further exposition of this idea, and patristic sources.

64 Mackie, , The Iconographic Programme of the Mosaics of the San Zeno Chapel (above, n. 4), 62–5Google Scholar.

65 Daniélou, Primitive Christian Symbols (above, n. 25), ch. 2. Also Odes of Solomon 1115–18 and 3817–21

66 See Gage, J., ‘Colour in western art: an issue’, Art Bulletin 72 (1990), 518–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

67 Mackie, , The Iconographic Programme of the Mosaics of the San Zeno Chapel (above, n. 4), 40–1Google Scholar.