DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61666#0021
FRANK JEWETT MATHER, JR., PRINCETON UNIVERSITY:
AN UNIDENTIFIED MOSAIC HEAD FROM OLD ST. PETER’S
The imposing head of a saint in the Grotte Vaticane here reproduced one Plate III, 1
is described by the guide as a fragment from the tombchapel of Pope John VII,
built in the year 706 A. D. De Rossi (“Musaici Cristiani”, tav. XX, lb) publishes
a mediocre reproduction in colors, resting content with the official attribution.
It has apparently escaped the attention of Father Wilpert in his monumental
corpus of Early Christian mosaics and paintings. Reasons for such neglect, apart
from the misleading ascription, may be the poor light in the Grotte and the fact that
the caption of Alinari’s photograph (No. 26379) unaccountably dates the mosaic in
the seventeenth century and thus relegates to an album rarely searched by students
of things Early Christian. I think no such student, having really scrutinized this
grand head, would accept a date as late as as the beginning of the eighth century.
The construction is in that impressionistic technique which at Rome barely survives
the sixth century and the advent of pure Byzantinism. The cubes are large, with
only two sizes. Garnet red and orange tesserae are used side by side in the con-
tours with splendid coloristic effect. The structural planes are boldly asserted in
broad and rough masses which are skilfully calculated for effect from afar. More
significantly, the superbly magisterial expression is entirely classic, with no touch
of Byzantine asceticism. All stylistic affinities are with very early mosaics. We have
the white, wig-like treatment of the hair as in Sta. Maria Maggiore. The semi-dome
of Sta. Pudenziana (late 4th century). And of the Archi-episcopal Palace at Ravenna
(middle 5 th.) afford the closest similarities in the colors and dispositions of the
mosaic cubes. All this can be readily verified from Wilpert’s admirable color plates.
On its face, our head should have been made between the last years of the fourth
century and the middle of the fifth, before the naturalism of Rome had surrendered
to Byzantine formalism.
The head measures twenty-five inches from crown to chin, hence on a usual ratio
of six and a half to one, it belonged to a figure about twelve and a half feet high.
That was approximately the height of the upper windows of Old St. Peter’s. Ciam-
pini (“De Sacris Aedificiis”, p. 34), citing the careful measurements of Alpharanus,
makes the windows seventeen palms high. The Roman palm, the length of the hand,
is eight and a half inches. So the windows were 144 ^2 inches high, a shade over
twelve feet. Ciampini, tabula X, reproduces a part of the north wall of the old Ba-
silica. In his engraving we see a gigantic angel between a window and the triumphal
arch at the west end of the nave. It is just as high as the window. Vasari (Milanesi
ed. tom I, p. 386) describes this angel as seven braccia tall, locates it over the organ,
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17
AN UNIDENTIFIED MOSAIC HEAD FROM OLD ST. PETER’S
The imposing head of a saint in the Grotte Vaticane here reproduced one Plate III, 1
is described by the guide as a fragment from the tombchapel of Pope John VII,
built in the year 706 A. D. De Rossi (“Musaici Cristiani”, tav. XX, lb) publishes
a mediocre reproduction in colors, resting content with the official attribution.
It has apparently escaped the attention of Father Wilpert in his monumental
corpus of Early Christian mosaics and paintings. Reasons for such neglect, apart
from the misleading ascription, may be the poor light in the Grotte and the fact that
the caption of Alinari’s photograph (No. 26379) unaccountably dates the mosaic in
the seventeenth century and thus relegates to an album rarely searched by students
of things Early Christian. I think no such student, having really scrutinized this
grand head, would accept a date as late as as the beginning of the eighth century.
The construction is in that impressionistic technique which at Rome barely survives
the sixth century and the advent of pure Byzantinism. The cubes are large, with
only two sizes. Garnet red and orange tesserae are used side by side in the con-
tours with splendid coloristic effect. The structural planes are boldly asserted in
broad and rough masses which are skilfully calculated for effect from afar. More
significantly, the superbly magisterial expression is entirely classic, with no touch
of Byzantine asceticism. All stylistic affinities are with very early mosaics. We have
the white, wig-like treatment of the hair as in Sta. Maria Maggiore. The semi-dome
of Sta. Pudenziana (late 4th century). And of the Archi-episcopal Palace at Ravenna
(middle 5 th.) afford the closest similarities in the colors and dispositions of the
mosaic cubes. All this can be readily verified from Wilpert’s admirable color plates.
On its face, our head should have been made between the last years of the fourth
century and the middle of the fifth, before the naturalism of Rome had surrendered
to Byzantine formalism.
The head measures twenty-five inches from crown to chin, hence on a usual ratio
of six and a half to one, it belonged to a figure about twelve and a half feet high.
That was approximately the height of the upper windows of Old St. Peter’s. Ciam-
pini (“De Sacris Aedificiis”, p. 34), citing the careful measurements of Alpharanus,
makes the windows seventeen palms high. The Roman palm, the length of the hand,
is eight and a half inches. So the windows were 144 ^2 inches high, a shade over
twelve feet. Ciampini, tabula X, reproduces a part of the north wall of the old Ba-
silica. In his engraving we see a gigantic angel between a window and the triumphal
arch at the west end of the nave. It is just as high as the window. Vasari (Milanesi
ed. tom I, p. 386) describes this angel as seven braccia tall, locates it over the organ,
3
17