Evidence from Rome for the image of Christ on the Chalke gate in Constantinople

Abstract

The biography of Pope Zacharias (741-52) in the Liber Pontificalis gives an account of his building-works and embellishments at the papal Lateran palace. After describing a new dining-room (triclinium) and an oratory and portico of St. Silvester, the account goes on to say: Fecit autem a fundamentis ante scrinium Lateranensem porticum atque turrem ubi et portas ereas atque cancellos instituit et per figuram Salvatoris ante fores ornavit; et per ascendentes scalas in superioribus super eandem turrem triclinium et cancellos aereos construxit, ubi et orbis terrarum descriptione depinxit atque diversis versiculis ornavit.(He made from their foundations, in front of the offices of the Lateran, a portico and tower, where he set up bronze doors and railings, and adorned it in front of the doors with a figure of our Saviour. [Reached] by stairs going up, in the upper parts over the same tower he built a triclinium and bronze railings, and here painted a representation of the orb of the world and ornamented it with various verses).