DOI article:
Rushforth, Gordon McNeil: The church of S. Maria Antiqua
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70291#0112
94
The British School at Rome.
III.—The Outer Church or Vestibule.
The walls of the great hall (B) through which the church proper was
approached, were also covered with paintings, extending over the large
semi-circular and rectangular niches which break the faces of the side-
walls. The painted surface is in a much worse condition than in the inner
church, and consists either of detached fragments or of very faint traces.
We begin at the main entrance, and pass round the walls from left to right
returning to the same point.
To right and left of the great door by which we enter from the direction
of the Forum, two small niches have been excavated in the wall, similar
to those which we have seen in the church. Three small full-length
figures of saints are painted on the back of each of them, males on
the right, females on the left. The figures in the niche to the right (68)
are very faint, and their names have quite disappeared, but it is clear that
they were three martyrs, in Byzantine official costume, holding crosses and
crowns. If, as was apparently the case, they formed a pendant to the
group in the niche on the left, we should expect them to be martyrs
connected with Roman churches. Such names as George, Sebastian,
Theodore, suggest themselves.1
The niche on the left (69), of which the right-hand portion is destroyed,
shows two female saints in jewelled Byzantine dresses and tiaras. Over
the head of the one to the left is inscribed H APIA (the letters combined in
a monogram, as in No. 61, p. 87) ATNH, and over the one in the middle
KHKHAHA, also preceded by the monogram. They stand under a sort of
canopy formed by an architrave (on which the names are painted) sup-
ported by a column at either end. The background is blue. If we
try to conjecture the name of the vanished third saint who accompanied
Agnes and Caecilia, it might be suggested that Agatha is, perhaps, the
next best known of the virgin martyrs, and there were dedications to her
in Rome. But considering the position and associations of this church,
we may say that no name is more likely than the one which follows
theirs in the Canon of the Mass, viz. Anastasia.2 As patroness of the
1 On the plaster some bilingual monk (perhaps) has scratched his name
PETRzzs
UETPOs
2 It occurs in the list in the Nobis quoque.
The British School at Rome.
III.—The Outer Church or Vestibule.
The walls of the great hall (B) through which the church proper was
approached, were also covered with paintings, extending over the large
semi-circular and rectangular niches which break the faces of the side-
walls. The painted surface is in a much worse condition than in the inner
church, and consists either of detached fragments or of very faint traces.
We begin at the main entrance, and pass round the walls from left to right
returning to the same point.
To right and left of the great door by which we enter from the direction
of the Forum, two small niches have been excavated in the wall, similar
to those which we have seen in the church. Three small full-length
figures of saints are painted on the back of each of them, males on
the right, females on the left. The figures in the niche to the right (68)
are very faint, and their names have quite disappeared, but it is clear that
they were three martyrs, in Byzantine official costume, holding crosses and
crowns. If, as was apparently the case, they formed a pendant to the
group in the niche on the left, we should expect them to be martyrs
connected with Roman churches. Such names as George, Sebastian,
Theodore, suggest themselves.1
The niche on the left (69), of which the right-hand portion is destroyed,
shows two female saints in jewelled Byzantine dresses and tiaras. Over
the head of the one to the left is inscribed H APIA (the letters combined in
a monogram, as in No. 61, p. 87) ATNH, and over the one in the middle
KHKHAHA, also preceded by the monogram. They stand under a sort of
canopy formed by an architrave (on which the names are painted) sup-
ported by a column at either end. The background is blue. If we
try to conjecture the name of the vanished third saint who accompanied
Agnes and Caecilia, it might be suggested that Agatha is, perhaps, the
next best known of the virgin martyrs, and there were dedications to her
in Rome. But considering the position and associations of this church,
we may say that no name is more likely than the one which follows
theirs in the Canon of the Mass, viz. Anastasia.2 As patroness of the
1 On the plaster some bilingual monk (perhaps) has scratched his name
PETRzzs
UETPOs
2 It occurs in the list in the Nobis quoque.