DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48462#0042
38
Knut Berg
17. Passion sarcophagus, Rome, Lateran Museum
of the twelfth Century, the Crowning with Thorns is interpreted as a symbolic act, designating Christ
as Triumphator. In the rendering of the scene itself later representations may be more realistic in showing
the mockery, but nowhere does Christ show any sign of pain.
The Lateran sarcophagus is the oldest of the preserved Passion sarcophagi, but it is doubtful if it represents
the prototype of this group8. Ah other sarcophagi of this type have scenes from the Passion of Christ
only in the right field while the fields to the left of the Crux Invicta show scenes from the martyrdom of
Peter and/or Paul. On none of them do we find a representation of the Crowning with Thorns. The repre-
sentation of the motif on the Lateran sarcophagus is a fairly isolated example in Early Christian art9,
and it has generally been supposed that the motif disappears until we meet it again in illuminated
manuscripts of the eleventh Century10.
Even though the Crowning with Thorns probably never became a very populär motif in Early Mediaeval
art, there are enough examples to demonstrate that the representation of the motif on the Lateran
sarcophagus cannot have been completely unique in its time.
We may have another Early Christian representation of the motif in the St. Augustin Gospels in
Cambridge from the end of the sixth Century, probably of provincial Italian origin11. The full-page
miniature (fol. 125)12 which precedes the preface to Luke consists of twelve rectangular panels
arranged in four rows of three, representing occurences during the Passion from the Entry into Jeru-
salem to the Way to Calvary. The last five scenes represent: 1. Christ before the High Priest;
2. The buffeting of Christ; 3. Pilate washing his hands and Christ being led away by two soldiers;
4. Christ being led by the hand by one soldier and followed by two others, and 5. Simon of Cyrene being
made to carry the Cross.
It is the fourth scene mentioned above I believe it is possible to identify with the Crowning with Thorns
(fig. 18). The inscription Duxerunt ut Crucifigerunt does not give any indication of the Crowning with
Thorns13. If we, however, examine the sequence of the last three scenes, it becomes obvious that there
is no reason to devote a whole panel only to represent Christ being led out to be crucified, as that would
only be a duplication of the scene in the right part of the preceding panel. Unfortunately, the scene is
so damaged that it is impossible with certainty to identify all the elements of the composition. It is
8 H. v. Campenhausen, Die Passionssarkophage. Zur Geschichte eines altchristlichen Bildkreises. Marburger Jahrbuch für
Kunstgeschichte, V, 1929, p. 29f.
9 Wilpert has interpreted a fresco in the Catacomb of Prestato as the Crowning with Thorns, but this is very doubtful. G. Wilpebt,
Le Pitture delle Catacombe Romane, Roma 1903, p. 208, pl. 18.
10 Michels, op. cit., p. 119; Wessel, op. cit., col. 129.
11 Corpus Christi College, MS. 286. E. A. Lowe, Codices Latini Antiquiores, II, Oxford 1935, no. 126; F. Wormald, The Miniatu-
res in the Gospels of St. Augustine, Cambridge 1954.
12 Wormald, op. cit., pl. 1.
13 The labeling of the scenes was probably added in the eighth Century (Lowe, op. cit.); but Wormald (op. cit., p. 13) has demon-
strated that the inscriptions faithfully describe the content of the scenes, several of which it would have been difficult to Interpret
correctly without them, and he therefore presumes that they were copied from a large set of illustrations with similar scenes.
Knut Berg
17. Passion sarcophagus, Rome, Lateran Museum
of the twelfth Century, the Crowning with Thorns is interpreted as a symbolic act, designating Christ
as Triumphator. In the rendering of the scene itself later representations may be more realistic in showing
the mockery, but nowhere does Christ show any sign of pain.
The Lateran sarcophagus is the oldest of the preserved Passion sarcophagi, but it is doubtful if it represents
the prototype of this group8. Ah other sarcophagi of this type have scenes from the Passion of Christ
only in the right field while the fields to the left of the Crux Invicta show scenes from the martyrdom of
Peter and/or Paul. On none of them do we find a representation of the Crowning with Thorns. The repre-
sentation of the motif on the Lateran sarcophagus is a fairly isolated example in Early Christian art9,
and it has generally been supposed that the motif disappears until we meet it again in illuminated
manuscripts of the eleventh Century10.
Even though the Crowning with Thorns probably never became a very populär motif in Early Mediaeval
art, there are enough examples to demonstrate that the representation of the motif on the Lateran
sarcophagus cannot have been completely unique in its time.
We may have another Early Christian representation of the motif in the St. Augustin Gospels in
Cambridge from the end of the sixth Century, probably of provincial Italian origin11. The full-page
miniature (fol. 125)12 which precedes the preface to Luke consists of twelve rectangular panels
arranged in four rows of three, representing occurences during the Passion from the Entry into Jeru-
salem to the Way to Calvary. The last five scenes represent: 1. Christ before the High Priest;
2. The buffeting of Christ; 3. Pilate washing his hands and Christ being led away by two soldiers;
4. Christ being led by the hand by one soldier and followed by two others, and 5. Simon of Cyrene being
made to carry the Cross.
It is the fourth scene mentioned above I believe it is possible to identify with the Crowning with Thorns
(fig. 18). The inscription Duxerunt ut Crucifigerunt does not give any indication of the Crowning with
Thorns13. If we, however, examine the sequence of the last three scenes, it becomes obvious that there
is no reason to devote a whole panel only to represent Christ being led out to be crucified, as that would
only be a duplication of the scene in the right part of the preceding panel. Unfortunately, the scene is
so damaged that it is impossible with certainty to identify all the elements of the composition. It is
8 H. v. Campenhausen, Die Passionssarkophage. Zur Geschichte eines altchristlichen Bildkreises. Marburger Jahrbuch für
Kunstgeschichte, V, 1929, p. 29f.
9 Wilpert has interpreted a fresco in the Catacomb of Prestato as the Crowning with Thorns, but this is very doubtful. G. Wilpebt,
Le Pitture delle Catacombe Romane, Roma 1903, p. 208, pl. 18.
10 Michels, op. cit., p. 119; Wessel, op. cit., col. 129.
11 Corpus Christi College, MS. 286. E. A. Lowe, Codices Latini Antiquiores, II, Oxford 1935, no. 126; F. Wormald, The Miniatu-
res in the Gospels of St. Augustine, Cambridge 1954.
12 Wormald, op. cit., pl. 1.
13 The labeling of the scenes was probably added in the eighth Century (Lowe, op. cit.); but Wormald (op. cit., p. 13) has demon-
strated that the inscriptions faithfully describe the content of the scenes, several of which it would have been difficult to Interpret
correctly without them, and he therefore presumes that they were copied from a large set of illustrations with similar scenes.