“Longobard and Papal Italy”: The Tempietto sul Clitunno
The Tempietto sul Clitunno stands as yet another early medieval monument whose dating remains imprecise. One could easily pass over this small church, especially as good color photos prove difficult to find, but I have my own images that I offer here, in combination with some that you may find on Flickr.
Flickr offers a nice view of the exterior. The refinement of the carving in the pediment will contrast with other Longobard sculpture that we will soon encounter, and the dedicatory inscription evokes an imperial past. For its translation see The Tempietto Del Clitunno Near Spoleto: Text and Illustrations
The painting inside, however, captures my attention. Flickr has a broader shot of the east wall. In the apex of the wall,
two angels in medallions flank a gemmed cross, also in a medallion. My photo does not show the cross clearly, but a black-and-white photo in the second volume of Emerick’s monograph does.
Christ appears in the conch of the niche,
and on the side walls, Peter
and Paul.
In the Flickr photo of the entire niche wall, you may also see palm trees on the flanking walls.
This assembly of wall paintings lacks a personalizing element, as in the Chapel of Theodotus, thereby permitting a more general interpretation. The gemmed cross recalls the actual Visigothic votive crosses from the Guarrazar Treasure. The panels of Peter and Paul recall those in the Sancta Sanctorum, which I can only find here and here. And the palm trees actually have counterparts in the Chapel of Theodotus, if you can find photos of them! The paintings of course may then be related to the pediment carvings of the exterior. Emerick suggests multiple historical circumstances, and I am tempted to suggest yet another, but I think greater value derive from a discussion of how these images relate to one another and to images elsewhere, and what these observations reveal about the function of individual images relative to the space of the church and the function of the program as a whole, especially as it relates to Rome.
July 6th, 2008 at 7.09
Dear colleagues and students,
I have discussed the icon collection at the Tempietto del Clitunno in my monograph on the building published by Penn State Press, 1998. Suffice it to say that these frescoes can be shown archaeologically to date to the original decor of the building, that they are all famous icons in heavy use in the Medieterranean Christian world during the seventh-ninth centuries (and beyond of course) and that the Sinai collection has two of them—-the famous Christ icon in encaustic, and the Peter icon. The decor of Rome’s S. Maria Antiqua in the chancel paid for by Pope John VII (705-707) has the Peter and the Paul, and these look very like those at the Tempietto. But the real interest of these icons is their link with the emperor in C’nople. The Christ icon (the Pantocrator) at Sinai and the Tempietto was first made famous by the Heraclian dynasty in early medieval Byzantium, after the 620s when Heraclius used it constantly in public appearances (before his troops on the Persian campaigns for example) and it ended up as the image on the obverse of Justinian II’s gold solidus (minted during Justinian II’s first reign in the 690s; Justinian II was Heraclius’ grandson). Here’s a nice question: What were the Lombard (or possibly Lombardo-Frankish) dukes of Spoleto doing when they invoked this image of the emperor? Remember! Justinian II’s portrait decorates the reverse of that gold solidus I just mentioned. An emperor at the end of the seventh century might well set himself up as Christ’s image on earth. Why did Italian grandees in the eigth century play with this imagery? What did it “get” them? For more, please see my book.
Best wishes,
Jud Emerick