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The Tomb of Alfanus in S. Maria in Cosmedin, Rome, and its Place in the Tradition of Roman Funerary Monuments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

John Osborne
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La tomba di alfanus nella chiesa di s. maria in cosmedin

Il monumento funerario del camerorius papale Alfanus nel portico di ingresso della chiesa di S. Maria in Cosmedin a Roma, databile circa al 1123 d.C, si erge all'inizio di una fila di tombe tardo-medievali che impiegano la stessa formula strutturale: un sarcofago sormontato da un arco. La formula stessa deriva dal periodo tardo-antico, e specificamente dalle tombe ad arcosolio nelle catacombe, e ci si domanda se il monumento di Alfanus rappresenti la rinascita o la sopravvivenza della tradizione classica. Benchè le testimonianze di monumenti funerari nei secoli intermedi siano scarse, resta abbastanza da permettere la conclusione che le tombe importanti seguivano questo modello, e in tal modo la formula del disegno della tomba può essere considerata come il continuamento della tradizione nel Medio Evo. Il vocabolario scultoreo, però, non ha precedenti alto-medievali, e questo si colloca meglio nel contesto della renovatio del XII secolo.

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Research Article
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Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 51 , November 1983 , pp. 240 - 247
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1983

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References

1 See Toesca, P., Storia dell' Arte Italiana. I: Il Medioevo (Turin 1927) 635–6Google Scholar; and Gardner, J., ‘Arnolfo di Cambio and Roman tomb design’, The Burlington Magazine CXV (1973) 420–39Google Scholar.

2 See Rushforth, G., ‘The church of S. Maria Antiqua’, PBSR I (1902) 1–123Google Scholar, esp. 104–7.

3 Textual references to early medieval papal tombs in St. Peter's suggest that most were located in or near the entrance portico, see Picard, J.-C., ‘Etude sur l'emplacement des tombes des papes du IIIe au Xe siècle’, Mélanges d'Archéologie et d'Histoire (Ecole Française de Rome) LXXXI (1969) 725–82Google Scholar, esp. 757–74.

4 See G. B. De Rossi, ‘Sepolcri del secolo ottavo scoperti presso la chiesa di S. Lorenzo in Lucina’Bullettino di Archeologia Cristiana (1873) 22–35. The only dated burial in this group was that of the deacon Paul, who died in A.D. 783.

5 The text of a tombstone of A.D. 1059, still preserved in the narthex of the lower church, is published by Junyent, E., Il Titolo di San Clemente in Roma (Rome 1932) 186–7Google Scholar. Another eleventh-century tomb in this narthex is marked by the wall-painting of the ‘Particular Judgment’, see Osborne, J., ‘The “Particular Judgment”: an early medieval wall-painting in the lower church of San Clemente, Rome’, The Burlington Magazine CXXIII (1981) 335–41Google Scholar.

6 Crescimbeni, G. M., L'Istoria della basilica diaconale, collegiata, e parrocchiale di S. Maria in Cosmedin di Roma (Rome 1715) 52Google Scholar.

7 For a full description of the marble and its carving see Giovenale, G. B., La Basilica di S. Maria in Cosmedin (Rome 1927) 9, 172–4Google Scholar. Fragments of earlier inscriptions on the reverse of the stones used in the pediment indicate that they have been re-used.

8 A nineteenth-century photograph of the tomb (Parker collection, British School at Rome) reveals that the loss of paint is at least a century old, and it seems likely that the damage occurred at an early date since there is no mention of the mural in Crescimbeni's monograph. Gardner (op. cit. 423) believed that the mural ‘contained no representation of the donor’, but this is speculation. A kneeling figure could easily have been present in the lost lower half.

9 For early examples of the Maria regina iconography in Roman painting see Osborne, J., ‘Early medieval painting in San Clemente, Rome: the Madonna and Child in the niche’, Gesta XX (1981) 299–310CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Nilgen, Ursula, ‘Maria Regina—ein politischer Kultbildtypus?’, Römisches Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte XIX (1981) 1–33Google Scholar, has interpreted the twelfth-century revival of this iconography in the context of the political struggles between the papacy and the Holy Roman emperors.

10 Ladner, G. B., I Ritratti dei Papi nell' antichità e nel medioevo (Vatican City 1941) I 251–2Google Scholar.

11 For the structural alterations see Krautheimer, R., Frankl, W., Corbett, S., ‘S. Maria in Cosmedin’, Corpus Basilicarum Christianarum Romae II (Vatican City 1959) 277–307Google Scholar.

12 Giovenale, op. cit. (n. 7) 63 no. 8. The similarity to the more-or-less contemporary throne in San Clemente, which bears a similar inscription referring to its donor, has been noted by Clausse, G., Les marbriers romains et le mobilier presbytéral (Paris 1897) 119Google Scholar.

13 Giovenale 63 no. 7; Forcella, V., Iscrizioni delle chiese e d'altri edificii di Roma dal secolo Xl fino ai giorni nostri IV (Rome 1874) 306 no. 744Google Scholar.

14 Giovenale 63 no. 9; Forcella 306 no. 743.

15 Forcella 305 no. 742.

16 No archival records exist for the church before the sixteenth century, see Tacus, R., ‘L'archivio di S. Maria in Cosmedin presso l'Archivio Storico del Vicariato. Inventario’, Ricerche per la storia religiosa di Roma I (1977) 331–48Google Scholar.

17 See Fabre, P., Etude sur le Liber Censuum de l'Eglise Romaine (Paris 1892) 155Google Scholar; Halphen, L., Etudes sur l'administration de Rome au Moyen Age (751–1252) (Paris 1907) 38–9Google Scholar; and Jordan, K., ‘Zu päpstlichen Finanzgeschichte im 11. und 12. Jahrhundert’, Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken XXV (1933–1934) 61–104Google Scholar, esp. 99–100.

18 The suggestion by Clausse (114–5), that Alfanus succeeded Giovanni Caetani as cardinal deacon of S. Maria in Cosmedin when the latter was elected pope as Gelasius II in 1118, is probably not correct. Giovenale (172) explains that the titular cardinal, Etienne de Berry, was also bishop of Metz, and that he had left Rome in 1122 in order to reside in that city. This would explain the absence of his name in the inscriptions.

19 See Bertaux, E., L'Art dans l'ltalie méridionale I (Paris 1903) 320–1Google Scholar; and Deér, J., The Dynastic Porphyry Tombs of the Norman period in Sicily (Cambridge, Mass. 1959) 29–31Google Scholar.

20 The classical origin of this type of monument has been recognised by Toesca, op. cit. (n. 1) 635–6; and Deér, op. cit. (n. 19) 30–1.

21 For an overview of this development see Krautheimer, R., ‘The New Rebirth of Rome: the Twelfth Century’, Rome. Profile of a City, 312–1308 (Princeton 1980) 161–202Google Scholar. For classical influence on twelfth-century sculpture in southern Italy, see Glass, D., ‘Romanesque sculpture in Campania and Sicily: a problem of method’, Art Bulletin LVI (1974) 315–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 For the use of porphyry as a symbol of rank by the medieval papacy, a practice which culminates in the tombs of Innocent II and Anastasius IV, see Deér, op. cit. 136–54, who argues with conviction that Innocent's tomb should be seen as ‘a monument not only to himself but also to the papal-imperial idea which he represented’ (p. 153).

23 Petrus Mallius, Descriptio basilicae Vaticanae, cap. 8: ‘Hic itaque sanctissimus papa Gregorius III requiescit in loco illo, ubi nunc felicis memoriae beatus Eugenius papa III requiescit. Ubi etiam ad honorem eiusdem Gregorii papae fuit erectus arcus, optimo musibo depictus, et permansit arcus ille usque ad tempora domini Eugenii III papae. De quo habemus in epitafio eius hunc versum: Tertius hie papa Gregorius est tumulatus.’ The text is published by Valentini, R. and Zucchetti, G.Codice Topografico della Cittá di Roma III (Rome 1946) 388Google Scholar. I would like to thank Ingo Herklotz for drawing my attention to this reference.

24 Bib. Vaticana, cod. Barb. lat. 4406, fol. 141. For discussion see Ladner, op. cit. (n. 10) 168–70.

25 Bib. Vaticana, cod. Barb, lat, 4406. fol. 142. For discussion see Ladner, op. cit. 171.

26 For the tomb of St. Cyril and the medieval sources which refer to it see Osborne, J., ‘The painting of the Anastasis in the lower church of San Clemente, Rome: a re-examination of the evidence for the location of the tomb of St. Cyril’, Byzantion LI (1981) 255–87Google Scholar.

27 For example, the early-ninth-century funerary chapel of Theodora, mother of pope Paschal I, in S. Prassede, Rome, or the fourteenth-century funerary chapel of Theodore Metochites in the Kariye Camii, Istanbul.

28 The Farfa tomb has been assigned to the twelfth century by Premoli, B., ‘La chiesa abbaziale di Farfa’, Rivista dell' Istituto Nazionale di Archeologia e Storia dell' Arte XXI–XXII (1974–1975) 5–77Google Scholar, esp. 32, but an earlier date appears more likely. Prof. Charles McClendon, co-director of the British School excavations at Farfa, has presented convincing arguments (as yet unpublished) for dating the tomb to the Carolingian period.

29 See Bartoli, A., ‘Scoperta dell' oratorio e del monastero di S. Cesario sul Palatino’, Nuovo Bullettino di Archeologia Cristiana XIII (1907) 191–204Google Scholar, esp. 202–3.

30 See Pantoni, A., Le Chiese e gli Edifici del Monastero di San Vincenzo al Volturno (Montecassino 1980) 116–21Google Scholar.

31 Einhard, Vita Karoli Magni, cap. 31: ‘In hac sepultus est eadem die … arcusque super tumulum deauratus cum imagine et titulo exstructus.’ See also Deér, op. cit. (n. 19) 27 note 15.