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The Zeno chapel: a prayer for salvation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

Gillian Mackie
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Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 57 , November 1989 , pp. 172 - 199
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Copyright © British School at Rome 1989

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References

1 The carved inscription beneath the outer lintel of the Zeno chapel door which reads ‘PASCHALIS PRAESVLIS OPUS DECOR FVLGIT IN AVLA QVOD PIA OPTVLIT VOTA STVDVIT REDDERE DO’ is followed by the monogramme of Paschal I.

See also Duchesne, L. (ed.), Liber Pontificalis, Paris, 1886–1892, II, 55Google Scholar: ‘Quinimmo et in eadem ecclesiam fecit oratorium beati Zenonis Christi martyris, ubi et sacratissimum eius corpus ponens musibo amplianter ornavit’.

Ibid., II, 64, gives the text of the marble slab which is attached to a pier outside the Zeno chapel door, and lists the relics which Paschal I brought from the catacombs and interred in S. Prassede:

ET IN IPSO INGRESSV BASILICAE MANV DEXTRA VBI VTIQUE BENIGNIS-

SIMAE SVAE GENETRICIS SCILICET DOMNAE THEODORAE EPISCOPAE

CORPVS QVIESCIT CONDIDIT IAMDICTUS PRAESVL CORPORA VENER-

ABILIVM HAEC ZENONIS PRESBITERI ET ALIORVM DVORVM.

2 Giuliano da Sangallo, Vat. Barb. lat. 4424, fol. 33r.

3 The decoration of the chapel of St. John the Evangelist survives: a similar scheme at the Baptist's chapel was recorded by Ciampini, , Vetera Monimenta, I, 1690Google Scholar, pl. LXXV.

4 Brenk, Beat, ‘Zum Bildprogramm der Zenokapelle in Rom,’ Archivio Español de Arqueologia, XLV–XLVII, 1973–1974, 213–21, esp. 214Google Scholar.

5 Nordhagen, Per Jonas, ‘John VII's “Adoration of the Cross” in S. Maria Antiqua,’ JWCI, XXX, 1967, 388–90Google Scholar.

6 Accordıng to Jane Matthews Matthews, J T, ‘The Byzantıne use of the tıtle Pantocrator’, Orıentalıa Chrıstıana Perıodıca XLIV, 1978, 442–62Google Scholar

7 Chatzıdakıs, M, ‘An Encaustıc Icon of Chrıst’ ın Studıes ın Byzantıne Art and Archaeology, Varıorum Reprınts, London, 1972Google Scholar

8 Leo, VI, Sermon 34, Sermons, ed Akakıos, , Athens, 1868, 275Google Scholar f Translated by Mango, Cyrıl, The Art of the Byzantıne Empıre, 312–1453, Englewood Clıffs, 1972, 203Google Scholar

9 Megaw, A H S and Hawkıns, E J W, The Church of the Panagıa Kanakarıa at Lythrankomı ın Cypıus Its Mosaıcs and Frescoes, Dumbarton Oaks Studıes, 14, 1977Google Scholar

10 ‘The Madonna and Chıld wıth Saınts and Pope Zacharıas’ formerly ın the Theodotus chapel at S Marıa Antıqua Another example ın S Clemente, Rome, and a thırd (now lost) ın S Lorenzo fuorı le mura also probably date from the eıghth-century See John Osborne, ‘Early Medıeval Paıntıng ın San Clemente, Rome The Madonna and Chıld ın the Nıche,’ Gesta, XX, (1981), 300, 305, 307Google Scholar

11 Mango, Art of the Byzantıne Empıre, 149–50.

12 See Chatzidakis, M., ‘An Encaustic Icon of Christ’, Studıes ın Byzantıne Art and Archaeology, London, 1972, 201Google Scholar and note 15 for text and translation.

13 Grabar, André, L'Iconoclasme byzantın, dossıer archéologıque, Paris, 1957, 11Google Scholar, uses the Cross of Justin II as a basis for discussion of adjacent use of different images of Christ to express different aspects of his being.

14 Walter, Christopher, ‘Two Notes on the Deesis,’ Revue des Etudes Byzantınes, XXVI, Paris, 1968, 311–36Google Scholar.

15 Asmussen, Marianne W., ‘The Chapel of S. Zeno in S. Prassede in Rome’, Analecta Rotnana, XV, 1986, 67–87, 74Google Scholar.

16 Matthiae, Guglielmo, Mosaici Medioevali delle Chiese di Roma, Rome, 1967, 241Google Scholar.

17 Mango, The Art of the Byzantine Empire, 149–50.

18 Asmussen, Chapel of S. Zeno, 74, objects that the vault image is upside-down relative to the two others. In this she ignores the position of the viewer, who is to read the triple image as he enters the door of the chapel, from which vantage point all three figures appear upright.

19 Walter, Two Notes, 327, 332.

20 The Lamb of God above the arch is proposed as the third person of the deesis by Weitzmann, Kurt. Forsyth, G., Weitzmann, K. et al. , The Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai, the Church and Fortress of Justinian, Ann Arbor, 1965Google Scholar, see especially Weitzmann's introduction, 13, and platesCIII, CXXII, CXXIII.

21 Where they were found in a marble sarcophagus during Benedict XIII's excavations of 1729. See Baldracco, E., ‘La Cripta del sec IX nella Chiesa di Santa Prassede a Roma,’ Rıvısta dı Archeologıa Crıstıana, XVIII, 1941, 277–96Google Scholar.

22 Migne, , Patr. Graec. IIGoogle Scholar, col. 1019 ff. Also AASS, May 19 (Pudentiana); July 21 (Praxedis).

23 Pascha's mosaic text:

EMICAT AVLA PIAE VARIIS DECORATA METALLIS

PRAXEDIS DNO SVPER AETHRA PLACENTIS HONORE

PONTIFICIS SVMMI STVDIO PASCHALIS ALVMNI

SEDIS APOSTOLICAE PASSIM QVI CORPORA CONDENS

PLVRIMA SCORVM SVBTER HAEC MOENIA PONIT

FRETVS VT HIS LIMEN MEREATVR ADIRE POLORUM

24 Ferrari, Guy, Early Roman Monasterıes. Notes for the hıstory of the monasterıes and convents at Rome from the fıfth to the tenth century, Vatican, 1957, 3–10Google Scholar.

25 ‘Oratorio sanctae Agnetis qui ponitur in monasterio qui appellatur Duo Furna fecit canistrum ex argento pens lib II unc VIII,’ Lıber Pontıfıcalıs, II, 24Google Scholar.

26 See note 1.

27 Ferrari, Monasterıes, 4.

28 In the words of the sıxteenth century Roman antıquarıan, Panvınıo, ODe Sacrosancto Basılıca, Baptısterıo et Patrıarchıo Lateranensı, III, 7–9Google Scholar, ed Lauer, P, Le Palaıs de Latran, Parıs, 1911, 466–8Google ScholarTr. Davıs-Weyer, C, Early Medıeval Art, 300–1150 Sources and Documents, Englewood Clıffs, 1971, 34–6Google Scholar

29 Thrones are also depıcted ın both the Ravenna baptısterıes, and ın the fıfth century chapel of S Matrona, at S Prısco, near Capua Vetere

30 Cynl of Alexandrıa, letter to Theodosıus II See Kostof, , The Orhodox Baptıstery of Ravenna, New Haven, 1965, 80 fGoogle Scholar

31 Ibid, 80.

32 Klass, Margo Pautler, The Chapel of St. Zeno ın St. Prassede ın Rome. Unpublished doctoral thesis, Bryn Mawr, 1972, 64–84Google Scholar.

33 Mouriki, Doula, ‘The Iconography of the Mosaics’, in Belting, H., Mango, C., and Mouriki, D., The Mosaıcs and Frescoes of St. Mary Pammakarıstos at Istanbul, Dumbarton Oaks Studies, 15, 1958, 58Google Scholar.

34 Lıber Pontıfıcalıs II, 54, ‘construxit in eodem loco a fundamentis cenobium … in quo et sanctam Grecorum congregationem adgregans, quae die noctuque grece modulationis psalmodie laudes omnipotenti Deo santisque … introduxit.’

35 Sicard, Damien, La Lıturgıe de la Mart dans l'Eglıse Latıne des Orıgınes à la rèforme Carolıngıenne. Munster, 1978, 361–2Google Scholar.

36 Mouriki, Iconography, 73. This prayer concludes the funeral service.

37 Mouriki, Iconography, 72, note 118.

38 Leo I, Sermon 51, Migne, , Patr. Lat. LIV, 308 fGoogle Scholar. See also O. von Simson, Sacred Fortress, 44.

39 Migne, Patr. Graec. 58, col. 549 f. G. Prevost, (tr), Chrysostom, St. John, Homilies on the Gospel of Saint Matthew, LVI, 7Google Scholar, vol. X in A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, New York, 1888, 349Google Scholar.

40 Another recorded example, now lost, was in the apse at the Basilica Stephania, Naples, 535–55. Diaconus, Johannes, Chromcon Epıscoporum S. Ecclesıae Neapolıtanae, chapter XXII. ed. Muratori, . Per. italic, script. I. pars II, s. 298Google Scholar.

41 Diega Giunta, ‘I Mosaici dell'Arco absidale della Basilica dei SS. Nereo ed Achilleo e l'Eresia Adozionista del sec VIII,’ in Roma e l'Etá Carolıngıa, Rome, 1976, 195–200, esp. 197; also, Davis-Weyer, review of F. Rademacher, Dıe Regına Angelorum ın der Kunst des Fruhen Mıttelalters, Dusseldorf, 1972, in Art Bulletın, LVI, 1974, 598–9, esp. 599.

‘Another western representation with Christological emphasis is a mosaic of Leo III in Santi Nereo ed Achilleo in Rome … here we find the Regına Angelorum side by side with representations of the Transfiguration and Annunciation. This can best be understood … as a belated anti-adoptionist statement.’

42 Brenk, Bildprogramm, 213–21.

43 Wilpert, J., Dıe Romıschen Mosaıken und Malereıen der Kırchlıchen Bauten vom IV–XIII Jahrhundert, II, Freiburg, 1917, pl. 114, 1Google Scholar.

44 Klass, , ‘Chapel of St. Zeno’, 105–7, quoting Dinkier, E., Das Apsısmosaık von S. Apollınare ın Classe, Cologne, 1964, 30–1Google Scholar.

45 Royal Library, Windsor Castle, vol. 166, Antıque MosaıcsGoogle Scholar.

46 Canina, L., Tempı Crıstıanı, Rome, 1846, 87 f.Google Scholar, and pl. XLIX.

47 Baldoria, N., ‘La Capella di San Zenone a Santa Prassede,’ Archıvıo storıco dell'Arte, IV, 1891, 266Google Scholar.

48 John 3, 5.

49 The inscription horizontally above the halo, EPISCOPA, and vertically on the left, THEODO(RA). The last two letters are missing, being within the area of restoration.

50 For meaning of the ‘square halo,’ see Gerhart Ladner, ‘The so-called Square Nimbus’, Medıeval Studıes, 3, 1941, 15–45Google Scholar. Reprinted in Images and Ideas ın the Mıddle Ages, I, Rome, 1983, 115–66Google Scholar, and for a more recent discussion, Osborne, J., ‘The Painting of the Anastasis in the Lower Church of San Clemente, Rome,’ Byzantıon, LI (1981), 255–87Google Scholar, esp. 282.

51 E. Muntz, Revue Archéologıque, 1874, 176, first noticed this feature of Paschal's mosaics.

52 Oakeshott, W., The Mosaıcs of Rome, London, 1967, color pl. XXGoogle Scholar.

53 Windsor Inv. 9221; Waetzoldt, S., Dıe Kopıen des 17 Jahrhunderts nach Mosaıken und Wandmalereıen ın Rom, Munich, 1964, 131, and pl. 134Google Scholar.

54 Oakeshott, Mosaıcs, plate 126.

55 See the S. Prassede apse inscription, note 21.

56 See Osborne, ‘Anastasis’, 269 and 282. Also, McClendon, Charles, ‘An Early Funerary Portrait from the Medieval Abbey at Farfa,’ Gesta XXII/I, 1983, 13–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

57 The daughter of Theodotus in the Theodotus chapel at S. Maria Antiqua, Rome, has a poorly preserved head and halo.

58 Kartsonis, Anna, Anastasis. The Making of an Image, Princeton, 1986, 90–1, and 188Google Scholar.

59 See The Apocryphal New Testament, tr. James, M.R., Oxford, 1924, 94–146Google Scholar.

60 Kartsonis, Anastasis, 14–16.

61 The Gospel of Nicodemus has been redated to the sixth century by G. C. O'Ceallaigh, H.Th.R., 56, 1963, 21–59.

62 James, Apocryphal N.T., 95.

63 See Davis-Weyer, Cecilia, ‘Die Altesten Darstellungen der Hadesfart Christi, des Evangelium Nikodemi und ein Mosaik der Zeno Kapelle,’ Roma e l'etá Carolingia, Rome, 1976, 183–95Google Scholar.

64 These include the two paintings in S. Maria Antiqua; and the mosaic of the John VII oratory at St. Peters, known from Grimaldi's drawing: Rome, Bibl. Apostolica Vaticana, Album, fols. 31 and 32; Waetzoldt, Kopien, pl. 477, 478.

65 Davis-Weyer, Hadesfart Christi, 194.

66 From the Greek version. James, Apocryphal N.T, 136.

67 Ibid., Latin A, IX, p. 140. The Greek version (IX, p. 140) varies in having Christ hold Adam's hand and deliver him to Michael in Paradise.

68 For example, the tomb at S. Clemente, Rome, identified by J. Osborne as that of St. Cyril, 826–69, Apostle to the Slavs. J. Osborne, ‘The Painting of the Anastasis in the Lower Church of San Clemente, Rome’, Byzantıon, 1981, 255–87.

69 See Mackie, Gillian, The Iconographıc Programme of the Zeno Chapel at Santa Prassede, Rome. Unpublished master's thesis, University of Victoria, 1984, 71Google Scholar. M. Asmussen, Chapel of S. Zeno, 79–80 and Fig. 10, illustrates the top of a halo that is visible below an electric cord at the lower edge of the panel. A. Kartsonis, Anastasis, p. 93, note 50, mentions that the composition included two standing figures, though she fails to document the second.

70 Recorded by Grimaldi, Giacomo, Descrızıone della Basılıca antıca dı S. Pıetro ın Vatıcano, Cod. Barb. Lat 2733, fol. 120, 121. Niggl, Reto, ed., Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1972Google Scholar.

71 Baldoria, Capella, 263–4, ‘scrive il Panvinio che i corpi di san Zenone e di san Valentino giacevano sopra di questa colonna, la quale fu ivi collocata nell'anno 1223.’

72 Panvinio, O., Le Sette Chiese di Roma (Rome, 1570), 332Google Scholar, ‘in quest oratorio la ripose, sopra la quale (the column of the flagellation) sono i corpi di santo Valentino e di santo Zenone.’ See also Apollonj-Ghetti, , Santa Prassede, Le Chiese di Roma illustrate, 66, Rome, 1961Google Scholar: (Zeno chapel, 66–77), who mentions a marble chest containing the relics of saints Valentine and Zeno, which were removed in 1699. Their present location is unknown.

73 A text which would date the transfer of relics of Valentine to the papacy of Nicholas IV, 1288–92, could not be reconfirmed by John Osborne in the alleged source manuscript (cod. Vat. 3407, fol. 20). See Osborne, , ‘Early Medieval Wall-Paintings in the Catacomb of San Valentino, Rome,’ Papers of the British School at Rome, XLIX, 1981, 82–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and note 2.

74 Baldoria, Capella, 266. ‘Al tempo del Ciampini (Vet. Mon., 151) queste due figure erano dipinte.’

75 André Grabar, ‘L'imago clipeata Chrétienne,’ reprint 50 in L'art de la fın de l'antıquıte et du moyen age; 1, Paris, 1968Google Scholar.

77 Ihm, Christa, Dıe Programme der Chrıstlıcher Apsımalereı vom Vıerten Jahrkundert bıs zur Mıtte des Achten Jahrhunderts, Wiesbaden, 1960, 171Google Scholar.

78 Ciampini, , Vet. Mon. IGoogle Scholar, pl. XLVII. Reproduced in van Berchem, M. and Clouzot, E., Mosaıques Chrétıennes du IVe au Xe sıécle, Geneva, 1924, 89Google Scholar.

79 Mouriki, Iconography, 48–51 and note 21.

80 James, Apocryphal N.T., 140–1.

81 For Enoch, Genesis V. 24. ‘Having walked with God, Enoch was seen no more, because God had taken him away’.

82 von Simson, Otto, Sacred Fortress, Chicago, 83–8Google Scholar.

83 Pope Hadrian I's letter to Charlemagne authorising him to take mosaics for his buildings in Aachen from Theodoric's palace in Ravenna: Codex Carolınus, letter 67, Monumenta Germanıae Hıstorıca, Epıstolae Merowıngıcı et Karolını Aevı, Vol. 1, 614.

84 Mackie, Thesis, 40–1.

85 Ross, D.J. A., ‘A Late Twelfth Century Artists' Pattern Sheet,’ JWCI, XXV, 1962, 119–28Google Scholar, discusses Rome, Bibl. Vat., Pattern Book, Cod. lat. 1976. See also Otto Demus, , Byzantıne Art and the West (New York, 1970), 32–3Google Scholar, for a discussion of this and other pattern books and sheets.

86 Kartsonis, Anastasıs, 91, has commented on this sarcophagus, and sees it as part of a continuing Western tradition. Since the examples she gives are all later than that in the Zeno chapel, it is likely that the iconographic detail originates right in the S. Zeno chapel, where a model was actually at hand.

87 Two strigillated sarcophagi were found below the high altar of S. Prassede in the excavations of 1729; they were joined by two others in the reconstructed crypt, which possibly came from the Zeno chapel.

88 Krautheimer, , Rome, Profıle of a City, Princeton, 1980, 134Google Scholar.

89 Ibid., 134, Fig. 109.

90 Brenk, ‘Bildprogramm’, 213–21.

91 Kartsonis, Anastasis, 91–2.

92 Oxford English Dictionary, under ‘Eschatology’.

93 Demus, Otto, Byzantine Mosaic Decoration, London, 1948Google Scholar.

94 Ibid., 7.

95 Asmussen, Chapel of S. Zeno, 69, tries to establish the chapel's conformity to the Middle Byzantine schema by measuring the comparative size of the figures. On the basis of discrepancies of size she underemphasises the Byzantine element, and stresses the retrospective Western roots of the decoration. However, it seems more likely that hierarchy of size could be subordinated to the availability of space, when, as here, it was necessary.

96 As I have suggested, p. 13–14 above.

97 Labbe and Cossart, Concilia, 7, col. 552–76. See also A Select Lıbrary of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, XIV, ‘The Seven Ecumenıcal Councıls’ New York, 1900, 548–70Google Scholar: Decree and Canons of 2nd Council of Nicaea.

98 Mango, The Art of the Byzantine Empire, 149.

99 Cormack, Robin, ‘The Arts During the Age of Iconoclasm’, Iconoclasm, Birmingham, 1975, 35–44Google Scholar, esp. 42–3.

100 A. Grabar, L'iconoclasme byzantin, 238–9. ‘Le premier exemple conservé d'une décoration iconographique complète appliquée à un edifice en forme de cube avec coupole centrale.’

101 Speck, Paul, ‘Ein Heiligenbilderzyklus im Studios-Kloster um das Jahr 800’, Actes du XIIe Congrès international d'Etudes Byzantines, Ohrid 1961; Belgrade, 1963–1964, 333–44, esp. 340Google Scholar.

102 Brenk, Bildprogramm, 220–1.

103 Paul J. Alexander, ‘Religious Persecution and Resistance in the Byzantine Empire of the Eighth and Ninth Centuries: Methods and Justifications