Iulii tombs under Saint Peter's basilica

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ghost
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Iulii tombs under Saint Peter's basilica

Post by ghost »

Why?

http://www.060608.it/en/cultura-e-svago ... niana.html
Another important sepulchre is that of the Iulii, whose frescoes depict Christian themes such as Jonah in the jaws of a whale and the Good Shepherd, while in the vault is a mosaic depicting Jesus Christ riding the Sun’s chariot, like the pagan god Apollo. Afterwards, the space of the necropolis was occupied by other tombs, even though the major part of the Christian sepulchres were in the western part, where is a small rectangular square surrounded by mausoleums built around what was identified as Peter’s tomb, near the arena where the apostle was martyred.
http://www.storialibera.it/epoca_antica ... hp?id=2893
In 1998, the Vatican authorities ordered an assessment and restoration of the necropolis uncovered beneath St. Peter's basilica.

The latest tomb to be restored was unveiled a few days ago, on Wednesday, May 28. It is the largest and most sumptuous of those that have been unearthed. It was built early in the second half of the second century, during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, by the prominent Valerii family of Rome. In addition to statues of family members, philosophers, and divinities, there is a bust of a pretty young girl and another, in gilded plaster, of a boy wearing the headdress typical of the devotees of Isis.

Almost all of the 22 tombs of the necropolis are pagan, with traces of oriental cults. The only completely Christian one is that of the Iulii family. Its vault boasts a marvelous mosaic depicting Christ as the Sun, in the manner of Apollo, ascending to heaven on a chariot drawn by white horses, holding the earth in his left hand. On the walls are images of the Good Shepherd, of Jonah being swallowed by the sea monster, and of a fisherman throwing into the waves a hook that one fish is swallowing while another swims away, a symbol of the souls that accept or reject salvation.
Diogenes the Cynic
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Re: Iulii tombs under Saint Peter's basilica

Post by Diogenes the Cynic »

What identifies the Apollo Mosaic as Christ?
Thor
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Re: Iulii tombs under Saint Peter's basilica

Post by Thor »

Diogenes the Cynic wrote:What identifies the Apollo Mosaic as Christ?
I can only imagine the context of the site is claimed to be a christian site, and other images seem to reflect such claim.
This leaves two options. Either they depicted their Christ as Apollo, or they worshiped Christ and Apollo.

My guess on what identifies the Apollo Mosaic as Christ, is that the other interpretation implies a even broader connection with pagan religion. The lesser of two evils in some sense.
ghost
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Re: Iulii tombs under Saint Peter's basilica

Post by ghost »

Diogenes the Cynic wrote:What identifies the Apollo Mosaic as Christ?
I don't know. The mosaic is shown here:

http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2011 ... an-tomb-m/
http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/wp-c ... helios.jpg
Diogenes the Cynic
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Re: Iulii tombs under Saint Peter's basilica

Post by Diogenes the Cynic »

ghost wrote:
Diogenes the Cynic wrote:What identifies the Apollo Mosaic as Christ?
I don't know. The mosaic is shown here:

http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2011 ... an-tomb-m/
http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/wp-c ... helios.jpg
Thank you.

Interesting. Apparently the identification is made only from the context of being found in an allegedly Christian mausoleum, but Hijmans, in the piece you quote from on your blog, makes an argument that the figure is Sol Invictus and that the whole site is pagan rather than Christian. I think the religious identification of the entire site is at least uncertain.
ghost
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Re: Iulii tombs under Saint Peter's basilica

Post by ghost »

Diogenes the Cynic
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Re: Iulii tombs under Saint Peter's basilica

Post by Diogenes the Cynic »

ghost wrote:It's Roger Pearse's blog.
I know, that's why I said "your blog."
Roger Pearse
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Re: Iulii tombs under Saint Peter's basilica

Post by Roger Pearse »

Diogenes the Cynic wrote:What identifies the Apollo Mosaic as Christ?
That's the question that I asked. I never got a satisfactory answer. The answer may be that some Italian guidebook said so - I have seen this sort of dribbling across languages - and some of those are not of a good standard.

4th century iconography is a minefield. Once Christianity became popular, people wanted monuments for the new religion. But the pattern books of the workshops were what they were; so naturally the workmen reused or adapted existing designs. A genuinely distinct art doesn't really appear until later, as I understand it (and what I know about iconography could be written on a Mithras-shaped postage stamp).
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arnoldo
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Re: Iulii tombs under Saint Peter's basilica

Post by arnoldo »

ghost wrote:Why?

http://www.060608.it/en/cultura-e-svago ... niana.html
Another important sepulchre is that of the Iulii, whose frescoes depict Christian themes such as Jonah in the jaws of a whale and the Good Shepherd, while in the vault is a mosaic depicting Jesus Christ riding the Sun’s chariot, like the pagan god Apollo. Afterwards, the space of the necropolis was occupied by other tombs, even though the major part of the Christian sepulchres were in the western part, where is a small rectangular square surrounded by mausoleums built around what was identified as Peter’s tomb, near the arena where the apostle was martyred.
http://www.storialibera.it/epoca_antica ... hp?id=2893
In 1998, the Vatican authorities ordered an assessment and restoration of the necropolis uncovered beneath St. Peter's basilica.

The latest tomb to be restored was unveiled a few days ago, on Wednesday, May 28. It is the largest and most sumptuous of those that have been unearthed. It was built early in the second half of the second century, during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, by the prominent Valerii family of Rome. In addition to statues of family members, philosophers, and divinities, there is a bust of a pretty young girl and another, in gilded plaster, of a boy wearing the headdress typical of the devotees of Isis.

Almost all of the 22 tombs of the necropolis are pagan, with traces of oriental cults. The only completely Christian one is that of the Iulii family. Its vault boasts a marvelous mosaic depicting Christ as the Sun, in the manner of Apollo, ascending to heaven on a chariot drawn by white horses, holding the earth in his left hand. On the walls are images of the Good Shepherd, of Jonah being swallowed by the sea monster, and of a fisherman throwing into the waves a hook that one fish is swallowing while another swims away, a symbol of the souls that accept or reject salvation.
FWIW, the close proximity between Christian and "pagan" art is also seen in Dura-Europos.
One has only to look at the frescoes of the sanctuaries lined up one after another along the walls of Dura: the Christian baptistery has not only the synagogue as a neighbor but also a temple of the Palmyrene gods, a Mithraeum, and the sanctuaries of Atargatis, Aretemis Azzanathcona, a Semitic Zeus, another local Artemis, and Adonis. Of different dates, but not very far apart, all the paintings in these sanctuaries existed simulataneously at the time of the destruction of Dura in 243.

http://faculty.winthrop.edu/dufresnel/a ... eading.pdf
Thor
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Re: Iulii tombs under Saint Peter's basilica

Post by Thor »

Perhaps the Metropolitan Museum of Art who published the comprehensive catalogue related to the exhibition Age of Spirituality will be more interesting than the Italian guidebook.
ICONIC REPRESENTATIONS

*467 Vault decoration with Christ/
Helios

Rome, late 3rd-early 4th century
Mosaic

198 x 163 cm. (78 x 64^ in.)

Vatican City, tomb of the Julii under St. Peter's

This mosaic on the vault of a small mausoleum is
only partly preserved. A hole has destroyed part
of the central section and many tesserae have
fallen, revealing that the design had been tinted
in on the final plaster surface to guide the mo-
saicist.

An octagonal panel in the center of a field of
intertwined grapevines on a gold background
contains the figure of Christ-Helios standing in a
chariot pulled by four white horses (two of which
are destroyed). This beardless figure has a rayed
nimbus, wears a tunic and a cloak that billows
behind him, and holds an orb in his left hand.
His right hand, which is destroyed, was probably
extended with palm open.

The Christian interpretation of this sun-god
image is suggested by the other figural mosaics in
the tomb — a fisherman, Jonah cast into the mouth
of the ketos, and the Good Shepherd — all of which
are known from other Early Christian sepulchral
contexts (cf. a Vatican sarcophagus [Bovini and
Brandenburg, 1967, 1, no. 35] and an early fourth-
century catacomb fresco [Wilpert, 1929, 1, pi. 1, 3]
where Christ-Helios is also coupled with Jonah
iconography). The image of the standing, ray-
nimbed Helios driving a quadriga and holding an
orb was derived from iconography of the Invin-
cible Sun (Sol Invictus), a cult particularly strong
among late Roman emperors and their legions.
First taken over for imperial usage (L 'Orange,
1935), this image was later adopted for Christ as
the true god of light. The ascent of Helios in his
chariot also suggests a prototype for ascension
imagery (cf. Sol on the Arch of Constantine [no.
58] and the Ascension of Elijah on a Louvre
Museum sarcophagus [Grabar (1), 1968, pi. 282]),
and a similar idea may have been intended here.

The connections of this mosaic with imperial
imagery and the iconography of the accompanying
Christian scenes suggest a date not earlier than the
last quarter of the third century, if not in the
beginning of the fourth. It can date no later than



Iconic representations

about 330-333, when work was begun on the
Constantinian basilica of St. Peter's directly above
it.

The mosaic was discovered in chapel M of the
tomb of the Julii.

J. N. C.

bibliography: Perler, 1953, pis. 2, 3; Toynbee and Ward-
Perkins, 1956, pp. 72-74, pi. 32; Gerke, 1967, pp. 32,
58, pi. on p. 59.

This publication contains some 700 pages of interesting images and descriptions for those who have interest in this subject, and can be found here :
https://archive.org/details/AgeOfSpirit ... ury_201404



Regarding some of the reasoning I see mentioned raise interesting questions about the several synagogues who have depictions of the Zodiac with Helios at the center. Would this reasoning be applied to these equally, it could be argued that these are falsely mistaken for synagogues and does not originate from Judaism. Not that I would.
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