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Sixth-Century Art and Architecture in ·Old Rome•: End Or Beginning?

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Joan Barclay Lloyd Sixth-Century Art and Architecture in ·old Rome•: End or Beginning? Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, or the mosaics of San Vitale in Ravenna, are highpoints in the architecture and art of the sixth century .1 Yet this was also an important time in Rome, for while the ancient city fell into ruins, the popes continued to provide new, beautifully decorated churches, and elaborate liturgical fumishings.2 Some important buildings and works of art from the period survive; others are known only from written accounts. 3 This study will focus on some aspects of the physical decline of the ancient city and then examine some examples of papal artistic patronage. Rome, once the capital of the Roman Empire, had by the sixth century declined in political importance. The emperor resided in Constantinople, while Italy was governed from Ravenna. In the reign of Justinian, the imperial army under Belisarius and Narses waged war against the Goths in Italy. 4 Rome was besieged in 536-537, 544, 546-547, and 549; in 552 Narses finally secured the city. After the Byzantine reconquest, in 568 the Lombards invaded Italy; from then on Rome was again surrounded by enemies. For much of the sixth century there was continuous warfare. Although this was not a totally new 1 They are treated as such in general works, e.g. R. Krautheimer and S. Curcic, Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture, 4th ed. (Harmondsworth 1986), 205-237; E. Kitzinger, Byzantine Art in the Making: main lines of stylistic development in Mediterranean art, 3rd-7th century (Cambridge, Mass. 1977), 81-92 (hereafter, Kitzinger 1977); K. Weitzmann (ed.), Age of Spirituality: late antique and early Christian art, third to seventh century, 2 vols (New York 1979), 1: 664-667; C. Mango, Byzantine Architecture (New York 1976), 129-140; R. Farioli, Ravenna romana e bizantina (Ravenna 1977), 145-164; C. Giovannini and G. Ricci, La cittii di Ravenna (Bari 1985), 50-51, 72- 73, 90-94; C. Marabini, / mosaici di Ravenna (Novara 1981), 46-65. 2 A picture of Rome in the sixth century is given in R. Krautheimer, Rome: profile of a city, 312-ca. 1308 (Princeton 1980), 37, 54-55, 58 and esp. 59-87 (hereafter, Krautheimer 1980). There is a more detailed analysis of the architecture of sixth-century churches in Rome in R. Krautheimer Corpus Basilicarum Christianarum Romae, 5 vols (Vatican City 1937-1977; hereafter, Krautheimer 1937-1977). For liturgical furnishings in the sixth century, see F. Guidobaldi, C. Barsanti and A. Guiglia Guidobaldi, San Clemente: la scultura del VJ secolo, San Clemente Miscellany 4.2 (Rome 1992; hereafter, Guidobaldi et al., 1992). 3 These include references to the city, which was visited by Theodoric c. 500, in Cassiodorus, Variarum libri duodecem (hereafter cited after the ed. of A.I. Fridh, Magni Aurelii Cassiodori Senatoris Opera, Pars I, Variarum Libri XII, CChr, ser. lat. 96 [Turnhout 1973); hereafter, Cassiodorus, Variae); the accounts of Rome at the time of Belisarius and Narses, c. 536-552, in Procopius, Wars, V-VIII, passim (hereafter cited from H.B. Dewing, Loeb Classical Library); and papal patronage, as recorded in the lives of the popes from Symmachus (498-514) to Gregory the Great (590-604), in Liber Pontificalis, ed. L. Duchesne, 3 vols (Paris 1886-1957; hereafter, Lib. Pont.), 1: 260-314. 4 Procopius, Wars, V-VIII, passim. The Sixth Century - End or Beginning? ed. P. Allen and E.M. Jeffreys, Byzantina Australiensia 10 (Brisbane 1996), 224-235. Sixth-Century Art and Architecture in "Old Rome": End or Beginning? 225 experience after the barbarians had conquered Rome in 410 and 455, it inevitably had disastrous effects on the physical state of the city, which fell into disrepair. Early in the sixth century, when Theodoric visited Rome, he was impressed by the monuments of the ancient city, which he wanted to have restored.5 His chancellor, Cassiodorus, referred to the Theatre of Pompey, the ruined granaries, the aqueducts,6 the Walls (fig. 1), even the •splendid sewers•.1 Rome was then adorned with •a huge crowd of statues, mighty herds of horses•. 8 Procopius, roughly thirty to fifty years later, observed ancient bronze statues attributed to Phidias or Lysippus and to Myron in Rome, as well as a plainer historical artefact, Aeneas' boat.9 During the wars of the sixth century, Belisarius as a defensive measure repaired the Aurelian Walls (fig. 1) and the fourteen Gates of the city10 and Narses built a new bridge, the Pons Nomentanus (fig. 2). 11 At that time, however, many of Rome's monuments and works of art perished. Procopius claimed that Totila intended to raze Rome to the ground in 546, when he destroyed about a third of the city's defences; he also reported with characteristic exaggeration that Totila •was on the point ... of burning the finest and most noteworthy of the buildings and making Rome a sheep-pasture•, when Belisarius sent his envoys to intervene. 12 Rome suffered from both the Goths and the Byzantines. In 537 the Goths cut the aqueducts, including the one which fed the mills on the Janiculum.13 Procopius explained that as a result the Romans could no longer take baths as of old, •because of the scarcity of water•. 14 Perhaps it was at this time that the great Roman thermae and the smaller balnea fell into disuse. Belisarius also had to arrange for com to be ground by mills in the River Tiber. 15 (Such mills continued to be situated in the river till the late nineteenth century. 16) On the other hand, enough drinking water was available from wells in the city for Rome's shrinking population. On the west bank of the Tiber, not far from St Peter's, stood the Mausoleum of Hadrian (fig. 3). Procopius described it as: . a most noteworthy sight. For it is made of Parian marble, and the stones fit closely one upon the other having nothing at all between them. And it has four sides which are all equal, each being about a stone's throw in length, while their height exceeds that of the city wall; and above there are statues of the same marble, 5 See particularly Cassiodorus, Variae, VII.15. 6 Cassiodorus, Variae, IV.51; ill.29,31. 7 Cassiodorus, Variae, m.30: ... splendidas Romanae cloacas civitatis ... (118). 8 Cassiodorus, Variae, VIl.13: ... populus copiosissimus statuarum, greges etiam abundantissimi equorum (273); see also Krautheimer 1980, 37. 9 Procopius, Wars, Vill.21.10-16, for famous works ofart in Rome; Procopius, Wars, Vill.22.6, for Aeneas' boat. 10 Procopius, Wars, V.14.14-16. 11 Krautheimer 1980, 63-64. 12 Procopius, Wars, VIl.22.6-18, from which the translation is taken. Totila is also said to have burned large parts of Rome, or at any rate many buildings of the city: Procopius, Wars, Vill.22.3 and Vill.33.14. 13 Procopius, Wars, V.19.13-18. 14 Procopius, Wars, V.29.27. 15 Procopius, Wars, V.19. 16 Krautheimer 1980, 241, 251. .
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