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The Revival of Opus Sectile Pavements in Rome and the Vicinity in the Carolingian Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

Charles B. McClendon
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Extract

The churches in Rome built between the end of the eighth and the middle of the ninth century are among the best preserved monuments of the Carolingian era anywhere in Europe. As such, they have afforded scholars the rare opportunity to study in detail the various media utilised in Carolingian church decoration. The floor pavement, however, is an aspect of this decoration that has received little attention and it is my purpose here to point out the presence of a small but distinct group of opus sectile floors in Rome that seem to belong to this period.

Of the Carolingian churches in Rome, S. Prassede, built for Pope Paschal I (817–824), is by far the most complete in its structural fabric, architectural sculpture and mosaic decoration. The best preserved part of the church is the S. Zeno chapel adjoining the right aisle, and the opus sectile pavement of this chapel is perhaps the most luxurious in our series. Indeed, it is the only one to have received previous notice, beginning with its publication by R. Cattaneo in 1890.

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Research Article
Information
Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 48 , November 1980 , pp. 157 - 165
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1980

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References

1 Among the numerous studies on the subject, the most recent are: Roma e l'età carolingia, Atti delle giornate di studio, 3–8 May 1976. Istituto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte, Rome, 1976; Krautheimer, Richard, 1980, ‘Renewal and Renascence: The Carolingian Age’, Rome: The Profile of a City, 312–1308, Princeton, New Jersey: 109–42Google Scholar.

2 Krautheimer, Richard, 1967, Corpus Basilicarum Christianarum Romae, III, Vatican City: 232–59Google Scholar (hereafter: Krautheimer, Corpus). Apolloni-Ghetti, B. M., 1961, Santa Prassede (Le chiese di Roma illustrate, 66), Rome.Google Scholar

3 Cattaneo, Raphael, 1890, L'Architecture en Italie du Vie au Xle Siècle, Venice: 167–8, fig. 88. See also: Kier, Hiltrud, 1970, Der Mittelalterliche Schmuckfussboden, Düsseldorf: 23, fig. 304Google Scholar.

4 Giovenale, G. B., 1927, La basilica di S. Maria in Cosmedin, Rome: 25–6Google Scholar and tav. XXIV. For the history of the church, see also: Krautheimer, , 1959, Corpus, II, Vatican City: 277–307Google Scholar. The panels of this pre-Cosmatesque pavement are visible, however, in the plan found in Giovenale's monograph, tav. II.

5 Muñoz, Antonio, 1926, Il Restauro della basilica di S. Giorgio al Velabro in Roma, RomeGoogle Scholar; see also, idem, 1927, ‘Studii e restauri nelle chiese di Roma: S. Giorgio al Velabro—S. Prassede’, Capitolium, III: 441–51.

6 Krautheimer, , 1937, Corpus, I: 242–63Google Scholar.

7 Ibid.: 245, and Le Liber Pontificalis, II, ed. L. Duchesne, 1886–92, Paris: 76.

8 Ceschi, Carlo, 1962, ‘Restauro di monumenti nel Lazio (1952–1961)’, Atti dell'Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, n.s., vol. VI: 15–16Google Scholar, figs. 63–4. Domenico Pertica, 1962, ‘Un pavimento dell'età carolingia scoperto recentemente in una chiesa di Farfa’, Il Giornale d'Italia, 9–10 April: 11.

9 Schuster, Ildefonso, 1921, L'Imperiale abbazia di Farfa, RomeGoogle Scholar, for a detailed history of the monastery.

10 ‘Nam in ecclesia beate Marie multum pretiosum ex auro et argento ornatum fieri iussit.’ Il Chronicon Farfense di Giorgio di Catino, I, ed. by Balzani, Ugo, 1903, Fonti per la storia d'ltalia, no. 33, Istituto storico italiano, Rome: 20Google Scholar.

11 Ibid., I: p. 22, note 1, and p. 198.

12 VII Settimana dei Musei. Tutela e valorizzazione del patrimonio artistico di Roma e del Lazio. Palazzo Venezia, 12–19 April, Rome, 1964: 122–35Google Scholar.

13 For a discussion of Roman inscriptions in the early ninth century, see: Gray, Nicolette, 1948, ‘The Paleography of Latin Inscriptions in the Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Centuries in Italy’, Papers of the British School at Rome, XVI, n.s., III: 38–162CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially: 97–105.

14 The entire text of the epitaph reads:

Hoc iacet in tumulo venerabilis abba Sichardus,

Cenobii sacrum qui bene gessit opus.

Hunc Deus adscivit materno viscere septum,

Hieremie consors vatis ut esse quaeat.

Mam genitum mundus necdum cognouerat ilium,

Spondet huic templo iam sed uterque parens.

Haec loca prudenti construxit et ordine miro,

Commissumque truci cavit ab hoste gregem.

Pro quo, quisque legis, non cesses mente benigna

Fundere votivas node dieque preces,

Angelicas inter mereatur ut esse cohortes,

Morteque devicta regna tenere poli.

II Chronicon Farfense, I: 22–3.

15 Liber Pontificalis, II: 60: ‘… pavimentumque altaris erigens preliosissimus marmoribus stravit … Presbiterium quoque ipsius ecclesiae diver sis marmoribus quam pridem fuerat in melius reparavit.’

16 Kier, Schmuckfussboden, p. 23, note 4, points out, for example, the close resemblance between the pavement of the choir of St. Benoit-sur-Loire and that of the S. Zeno Chapel adjoining S. Prassede. The comparison becomes all the more tantalizing when we learn that the material for the St. Benoît floor was brought from Rome by Antoine Duprat in 1535. Duprat was Cardinal of S. Anastasia, a major church in Rome built during the Carolingian period under Pope Leo III (795–816): Krautheimer, , Corpus, I: 42–61Google Scholar; Cardella, Lorenzo, 1793, Memorie storiche dei Cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa, IV, Rome: 95–6Google Scholar. For a detailed archaeological discussion of the various phases of the opus sectile pavement in the choir of St. Benoit-sur-Loire, see: Berland, Dom J.-M., 1968, ‘Le pavement du chœur de Saint-Benoît-sur Loire’, Cahiers de civilisation medievale, XI: 211–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 Krautheimer, Richard, 1969, ‘The Carolingian Revival of Early Christian Architecture’, Studies in Early Christian, Medieval, and Renaissance Art, New York: 203–56Google Scholar. See also note I above.

18 Becatti, Giovanni, 1961, Scavi di Ostia IV: Mosaici e pavimenti marmorei, RomeGoogle Scholar; idem, ‘Case ostiense del tardo impero’, Bollettino d'arte, S. IV, 33, 1948: 197–224. Bartoli, Alfonso, 1963, Curia Senatus, lo scavo e it restauro, Rome: especially p. 56Google Scholar, and colour plate facing the title page. Colini, Antonio M., 1944, ‘Storia e topografia del Celio nelL'antichità’, Memorie: Atti delta Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia, VII: 289Google Scholar, note 15, and fig. 240. Monoprio, A., 1933, ‘A Restoration of the Basilica of Constantine’, Papers of the British School at Rome, XII: 1–25Google Scholar, especially p. 9, and pl. VII.

19 Andrieu, Michel, 1954, ‘La rota porphyretica de la basilique vaticane’, Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'Ecole française de Rome, LXVI: 189–218CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 Krautheimer, , Corpus, II: 216–47Google Scholar, especially pp. 230–3.

21 In fact, panels immediately to either side of that of the porphyry oval at Farfa exhibit a light blue glass paste characteristic of Roman pavements as early as the Neronian and Hadrianic periods. This clearly suggests that part, if not all, of the Farfa pavement is composed of reused Roman material. I would like to thank Demetrios Michaelides for advice on this point and other technical matters concerning the Farfa pavement.

22 Becatti, Giovanni, 1969, Scavi di Ostia VI: Edificio con ‘opus sectile’ fuori Porta Marina, Rome: especially pp. 102, 151–4Google Scholar, pls. LXXV–LXXVII.

23 According to Krautheimer, , Corpus, I: 130, 159Google Scholar; II: 62–3, 263–4: S. Maria Antiqua presbytery, after 565; lower church of S. Clemente, 523–26; in the east basilica of S. Lorenzo fuori le mura, 579–90, as recorded by Vespignani; room to the right of the apse of S. Crisogono, after 500.

One member of this group is the fragment of a pavement in the north aisle of Ss. Quattro Coronati. However, together with the typical rosette pattern are panels with an irregular checkerboard pattern. This pavement is admittedly controversial, for Krautheimer, (Corpus, IV: 23Google Scholar, fig. 21, pp. 28–9) and Apolloni-Ghetti (Santa Prassede, 1961: 76, and ISs. Quattro Coronati, 1964: 81–2, fig. 24) prefer to attribute the pavement on archaeological grounds to a building phase under Pope Leo IV (847–55). If the Ss. Quattro Coronati floor dates to the sixth century, then the use of a checkerboard design is an important precedent for the Carolingian floors. If, on the other hand, this pavement should date to the middle of the ninth century, one would have to suppose a return to the opus tessellatutn of three centuries earlier. Or, the checkerboard pattern may be part of a restoration of an earlier floor when the Carolingian church was built. We await the study of the sixth century pavements in Rome by Alessandra and Federico Guidobaldi.

24 Kähler, H., 1973, Die Villa des Maxentius bei Piazza Armerina, BerlinGoogle Scholar. For a discussion of this opus sectile pavement, see: Kalavrezou-Maxeiner, Ioli, 1975, ‘The Imperial Chamber at Luxor’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 29: 250CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 Agnellus, Liber Pontificalis Ecclesiae Ravennatis, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores Rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum Saec. VI–IX: 289, c. 23. Quoted also in Delbrueck, Richard, 1932, Antike Porphyrwerke, Berlin-Leipzig: viiGoogle Scholar. A similar arrangement was made for the interment of Bishop Neon (c. 450–75): ‘Sepultus olim in basilica apostolorum ante altare bead apostoli Petri subtus pirfireticum lapidem …’, MGH: SRLI: 293, c. 29, and Delbrueck, Porphyrwerke: vii.

26 Andrieu, 1954, ‘La rota porphyretica …’, Mélanges, 198–208; Delbrueck, 1932, Porphyrwerke: 149–50; Schramm, Percy Ernst and Mütherich, Florentine, 1962, Denkmale der deutschen Könige und Kaiser, Munich: 140–1Google Scholar. One wonders if the revetment, especially the porphyry discs, of the Capella Clementina installed below the main altar of St. Peter's by Clement VIII (1592–1615) may not derive in part from the pavement of the Constantinian basilica.

27 Delbrueck, , 1932, Porphyrwerke: vii–ix, 27–30, 148–9Google Scholar.

28 ‘Et dicunt quidam, quod ipsa Galla Placidia augusta super quatuor rotas rubeas marmoreas, quae sunt ante nominatas regias, iubebat ponere cereostatos cum manualia ad mensuram, et iactabat se noctu in medio pavimento, Deofunderepreces, et tamdiu pernoctabat in lacrimis orans, quamdiu ipsa lumina perdurabant.’ Agnellus, Liber Pontificalis, MGH: SRLI, 1878: 306, c. 41; Delbrueck, 1932, Porphyrwerke: vii. See also, Deichmann, Friedrich W., 1974, Ravenna, Hauptstadt des spätantiken Abendlandes, II, Wiesbaden: 56–7Google Scholar.

29 Delbrueck, , 1932, Porphyrwerke, x–xi: 148–9Google Scholar. Frothingham, A. L. Jr, 1895, ‘Notes on Byzantine Art and Culture in Italy and Especially in Rome’, American Journal of Archaeology, X: 197–200Google Scholar.

30 For a discussion of the possible liturgical significance of Cosmatesque pavements, see: Glass, Dorothy, 1969, ‘Papal Patronage in the Early Twelfth Century: Notes on the Iconography of Cosmatesque Pavements’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 32: 386–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar. I would like to thank Professor Glass for her constant and enthusiastic advice about medieval pavements in general and about those in Rome in particular.

31 The famous Institutio de diversitate qfficiorum written c. 800 by Abbot Angilbertus of Centula, with its abbey church dedicated to Saint-Riquier, is published by Lot, Ferdinand in Hariulf. Chronique de l'abbaye de Saint-Riquier (Ve siècle—1104), Appendix VI, Paris, 1894: 296–306Google Scholar. Heitz, Carol, 1974, ‘Architecture et liturgie processionale à l'époque préromane’, Revue de l'art, 23–26: 30–47Google Scholar, attempts to map out the processional movement described in this text, although no reference is made to the pavement. Hariulf, chronicler of Centula in the late eleventh century, saw a marble pavement in the choir with an inscription attributing it to Angilbertus. For a discussion of the documentary evidence as well as fragments of a porphyry and marble floor still preserved at the abbey, see: Stern, Henri, 1957, Recueilgeneral des mosaiques de la Gaule, volume I, part 1, Paris: 93–5Google Scholar.

32 Lot, Hariulf. Chronicon, Lib. II, cap. VI, 1894: 53: ‘… tarn pro amore sancti Richarii quam pro dilecto suo Anghilberto, Centulense monasterium omni honorificentia attollere cupiebat, [Karolus Magnus] direxit vehicula fortia et multa in urbem Romam, ut marmor et columnae ad ornatum jam dictae ecclesiae deferrentur.’

33 Kier, Schmuckfussboden: 84–6, figs. 5–16. References to the transportation of materials from Italy to Aachen are found in Einhard's Vita Karoli Magni Imperatoris, MGH: SS, II: 457, c. 26: ‘Ad cuius structuram cum columnas et marmora aliunde habere non posset, Roma atque Ravenna devehenda curavit’; and also in a letter from Pope Hadrian to Charlemagne (see note 36 following). Information about the palace complex at Ravenna is incomplete and controversial. For the partial publication of the 1908–14 excavations, see: Gherardo Ghirardini, 1916, ‘Gli scavi del Palazzo di Teodorico a Ravenna’, Monumenti antichi, Reale accademia dei Lincei, 24: cols. 738–838. Here two different opus sectile pavements are distinguished, one from the lowest level of the site (cols. 766–7, and fig. 11) assigned to the imperial Roman period, and another with a central rota (of porphyry?) at a higher level in the aula regia (cols. 776–77, fig. 16) considered part of the remodelling of Theodoric. For a general discussion of the problem, with additional bibliography, see: Duval, Noël, 1960, ‘Que savons-nous du palais de Théodéric à Ravenne’, Ḿelanges d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'Ecole française de Rome, LXXII: 337–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 Agnellus, Liber Pontificalis, MGH: SRLI: 352, c. 113: ‘Ibi fuit lapis pirfireticus ante praedictum arcam, preciosissimus et valde lucidissimus in modum vitri. Et apertis ianuis, quae respiciunt ad ecclesiam beati Severi, intuisset quis ilium lapidem, sicut in speculum tarn homines quamque animalia sive volatilia vel qualiscumque res inde transissent enigma quasi in speculum videri potuisset. Sed pene annos 12, tempore Petronacis pontificis Lotharius augustus tollere iussit, et in capsam ligneam super lanam inclausit et Franciam deportavit et super altarium Sancti Sebastiani, mensam ut esset, posuit.’ The Frankish church in question is probably Saint-Médard at Soissons, whose abbot, Hilduin, also abbot of Saint-Denis and personal counsellor to the emperor, obtained the venerated body of St. Sebastian in 826 from Pope Eugenius II. Guirand, Jean, 1892, ‘Le commerce des reliques au commencement du IXe siècle’, Mélanges G. B. De Rossi, Paris-Rome: 73–95Google Scholar, and Ex Translatione Sancti Sebastiani, MGH: SS, XV: 377–91Google Scholar.

35 For Cologne Cathedral and Saint-Germain at Auxerre, see: Kier, Schmuckfussboden: 23–4, 105–8, figs. 25–31, 312, and accompanying foldout plan. The mention of a marble pavement at Lorsch is found in the Chronicon Laureshamense, MGH: SS, XXI: p. 352: (under abbot Richbodus in 785) ‘… cancellos circa requiem beati Nazarii ex auro argentoque mirifice vestiens, pavimentum etiam coram altari vario stratum marmore sublimavit’. According to the Catalogus Abbatum Floriacensim, Patrologia Latina, ed. Migne, , CXXXIX, 581BGoogle Scholar., Theodulph decorated his oratory with an elaborate marble floor, ‘pavimentum … marmoreo depinxit emblemate’. Undoubtedly similar references could be found for other important Carolingian centres.

36 MGH: Epistolae III, Merowingici et Karolini aevi, I, p. 614, and quoted in Kier, Schmuckfussboden, p. 86: ’Praefulgidos alque nectareos regalis potentiae vestrae per Aruinum ducem suscepimus apices. In quibus referebatur, quod palatii Ravennate civitatis mosivo atque marmores ceterisque exemplis tarn in strato quamque in parietibus sitis vobis tribuissemus. Nos quippe libenti animo et puro corde cum nimio amore vestre excellentiae tribuimus ejfectum et tarn marmores quamque mosivo ceterisque exemplis de eodem palatio vobis concedimus abstollendum, quia per vestra laboriosa regalia certamina multa bona fautoris vestri, beati Petri clavigeri regni caelorum, ecclesia cotidie fruitur, quatenus merces vestra copiosa adscribatur in celis’.

Deichmann, Friedrich W., (1969, Ravenna Geschichte und Monumente, Wiesbaden: 42Google Scholar) suggests that much of the material for the construction and decoration of the palatium Theodoricianum came from the domus Pinciana in Rome as mentioned in an edict of Theodoric from the years 507 to 511 A.D., recorded by Cassiodorus, . MGH: Auctores Antiquissimi, XII, p. 84Google Scholar: ‘Decet prudentiam vestram in augendis fabricis regalibus obtemperare dispositis, quia nobilissimi civis est patriae suae augmenta cogitare, maxime cum sit studii nostri ilia discernere, quibus cunctos notum est sine suis dispendiis oboedire. Atque ideo magnitudini tuae praesenti ammonitione declaramus, ut marmora, quae de domo Pinciana constat esse disposita, ad Ravennatem urbem per catabolenses vestra ordinatione dirigantur. subvectum vero direximus de praesenti, ne aut mora nostris ordinationibus proveniret aut laborantes aliqua detrimenta sentiren?. If Deichmann's hypothesis is correct, it would provide an important precedent for the reuse of ancient material in the Carolingian period. Moreover, it would mean that much of the material Charlemagne took from Ravenna originally came from Rome.