Dalle imagines maiorum al ritratto nelle catacombe di Roma
Author(s)
Corneli, Claudia
Date Issued
March 15, 2010
Type
Doctoral Thesis
Abstract
The catacomb painting in Rome is a basic source of images testifying the feature of the first Christian representations.
In the tendency of representing death people in the catacomb, I point out the connections with the cult of the ancient imagines maiorum, the masks (I-III century AD) and the Fayum portraits on a wooden panel (III and IV century AD).
I established a link between the custom of inserting paintings on a wooded panel on the walls discovered in the excavations of Pompei and the acknowledged cases of inserting panel – portraits in the cubiculum walls of Saint Marcellino and Peter’s and Saint Callisto’s catacombs.
The first part of the thesis is organized in three macro-chapters: the first one is inspired by the studies carried out by Daut in the seventies and analyses the usages related to the image-portraits starting from the testimonies of the ancient classical sources, Pliny, Tacitus, Plutarch and Dione Cassio in particular (with a brief appendix of the sources).
In the second chapter I outline the important change that leads to the disintegration of the death mask, made with the cast proceeding in the roman bust-portrait.
In the third chapter I discuss the thesis related to the practice of the portrait accomplished during a lifetime and of domestic use.
The second part of the thesis is dedicated to the research into the “characters” of pictorial representation of the face in Christian catacombs.
The first chapter is introduced by the discussion among scholars at the beginning of the Nineteenth century about the portrait-trend in catacomb painting, started by the important studies of Joseph Wilpert. I describe and analyse some important episodes of catacomb portrait (the woman with the baby in the Coemeterium Maius, Nicerus in the homonymous cubiculum of SS. Marcellino and Peter’s catacomb, up to the symbolic portrait of Christ-Orpheus).
The last chapter analyses the cases of panel-portraits inserted in the wall through the comparison with the usage of “picturae inclusae” in the Pompeian houses walls, as for instance the new example discovered in “Isaac Cubiculum” near SS. Peter and Marcellino’s catacomb.
Additional information
Dottorato di ricerca in Memoria e materia delle opere d'arte attraverso i processi di produzione, storicizzazione, conservazione, musealizzazione
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