British School at Rome: Papers of the British School at Rome (9.1920)

The Portraits of the Popes.

i79

The next or fourth period of papal history, the age of the Byzantine
occupation of Rome ; of the Iconoclast persecution ; of the beginnings
of the temporal power of the Popes ; of the foundation of papal Rome,
and of the brief Carolingian Renaissance, was an important one in the
history of Roman art. During this epoch Rome was for about two
hundred years, nominally at least, governed by Byzantine Dukes, and
so came under the artistic influence of Constantinople ; and even after
the cessation of any effective control over it by the Basileus by the
Bosphorus, and the advent of the civil authority of the Roman Pontiffs,
Byzantine artistic influence was kept up by the monks and others who
fled thither to avoid the persecution of the Iconoclast Emperors. The
remains of the historic literature and art of this period of Byzantine
influence which have survived, furnish us with direct evidence that the
Popes of that age caused portraits of themselves to be executed in various
materials. We read, for instance, that Pope Agapitus (c. 535) placed a
likeness of himself in a library which he had built1 ; and that the portrait
of Leo IV. (847-56) was woven into countless textile fabrics from the
looms of Egypt and Syria.2 The inscription below the apsidal mosaic
in the basilica of St. Agnes erected by Honorius I. (625-39), tells us how
he may be recognised in the mosaic by his vestments and the model of
the church which he holds in his hands (factis).3 To this day, too, are
preserved the originals or copies of mosaics or frescoes in which are to be
seen contemporary portraits of Felix IV. (526-30),4 a mosaic in the
Church of SS. Cosmas and Damian ; Pelagius II. (578-90), a mosaic in
that of St. Lawrence outside-the-walls (Plate XX. 1); Honorius I.
(625-39), a mosaic in the church of St. Agnes outside-the-walls ; John IV.
(640-2) and Theodore (642-9), a mosaic in the chapel of S. Venanzio,
in the Baptistery of the Lateran ; John VII. (705-8), a mosaic in the

1 Lib. Pont. i. 288.
2 ‘ Obtulit vela 4 cum chrysoclavo in quibus ipse praesul depictus.’ Ib. ii. p. 130
cf. pp. 125, 129, etc. Of another vestment it is said : ‘ habens effigiem ipsius almi pontificis.’
Ib. p. in. Cf. p. 114 for his portrait in mosaic.
3 ‘ Vestibus et factis signantur illius ora
Lucet et aspectu lucida corda gerens.’—Ap. ib. i. p. 325.
4 Ciacconius (Cod. Vat. 5409 f. 11) gives a copy of a portrait erf Felix IV. from the
cemetery of St. Nicholas in Careers. But see note below about this cemetery. The
copy depicts the Pope with a nimbus, as bare-headed and bearded, and with a strong,
rather severe face. His vestments are like of those in the portrait of Boniface IV. from the
same place, a reproduction of which we give.

The Fourth,
or Byzantine
Period,
522-882

N 2