Visual Hybridity in the Sancta Sanctorum (Rome)

Abstract

The Sancta Sanctorum, the private papal chapel associated with the Lateran Palace, is one of the artistic treasures of late medieval Rome. Following an earthquake that destroyed an earlier structure, Pope Nicholas III (1277–80) sponsored the reconstruction of this “Holy of Holies” and its decoration with frescoes, mosaic, and marble work. The frescoes, depicting hagiographic scenes and a donor image, were repainted likely in the early sixteenth century when classical architecture was employed to illusionistically reframe the medieval representations. This Renaissance overpainting selectively altered the medieval frames, draperies, and backgrounds of the scenes, but left the iconography as well as the figures’ faces and hands relatively intact. This article explores the meaning of the Renaissance reframing, the significance of the stylistic disjuncture that it creates, and the importance of preserving while at the same time reinterpreting images from the past in what was one of the holiest sites in Rome.