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Italy,
Rome, St. Peter's Basilica | Decoration
Professor Dale Kinney
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Decoration.
The original ornamentation of St. Peter's comprised the marble
columns and entablatures already described, and a great deal
of gilding. Fourth- and fifth-century references to the church
consistently mention its "shining," "gleaming"
appearance, including descriptions written by Prudentius.
Constantine's donations included—in addition to the inscribed
gold cross weighing 150 pounds (49 kg.)—"shining gold-foil"
to cover the apse; a silver-gilt, jewel-studded altar weighing
350 pounds; a golden chandelier with 50 dolphin-shaped lights
that hung in front of the tomb of St. Peter; and 32 silver lamps
in the nave as described in the Liber
Pontificalis. Illumination was a luxury because of the cost
of good oil to burn in the lamps, so the lights were endowed
with a number of oil-producing properties in Syria and Egypt.
We must imagine the basilica at night, with the fire from the
lamps flickering off the polished marble and metal surfaces,
creating glimmering islands of illumination in the enormous
space. Didactic narrative imagery would have been both hard
to absorb and difficult to see in this setting, and it is generally
thought to have been a later addition to the decor. A figural
mosaic was set in the apse, possibly representing the Traditio
legis: an image of Christ handing a scroll of authority to St.
Peter, with St. Paul on the other side. The nave walls between
the entablature and the windows were painted with two registers
of scenes from the Old and New Testaments.
Italy, Rome, Old St. Peters, nave wall, drawing by Grimaldi
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Italy, Rome, Old St. Peters, nave wall, drawing by Grimaldi
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Italy, Rome, Old St. Peters, nave wall, drawing by Grimaldi |
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Around the
middle of the fifth century Marinianus, a secular official (consul),
and his wife Anastasia donated a huge mosaic to cover the upper
part of the facade, depicting motifs from the Apocalypse:
24 Elders bearing crowns or wreaths, the four symbolic beasts,
and the Lamb. The mosaic was still reasonably well preserved
in the 11th century, when it was sketched in a manuscript preserved
in Eton College in England.
Italy, Rome, Old St. Peters, façade represented
in an 11th century manuscript, Eton College Library, MS
124, fol. 122r
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