The space of narrative: Romanesque wall painting in Northern Italy and its sources

It is believable that narrative wall painting first appeared in a Christian church in the late Fourth Century. Nola's Bishop Paolino (355-431) at the beginning of the Fifth Century affirmed that biblical cycles painted on a basilica clerestory were "raro more", a rarity: we can gather that he was referring to the main churches in Rome, perhaps in Milan too. Old St Peter's in Rome, the largest church in the Latin West, presented an extended narrative cycle that exerted a widespread influence on church decoration throughout the Middle Ages. Forty-six fields arranged in two registers represented the Old Testament on the right (North) wall of the nave, as well as forty-six on the facing wall illustrating the New Testament. Standing Prophets and Apostles were aligned between the clerestory windows, while Popes' portraits were put in the lower frieze, just above the colossal lintel. A sequence of Peter's life was depicted in the transept. As Constantine's church was demolished during the Renaissance, to make room for the new St Peter's projected by Bramante, the old paintings are partially known through watercolours made in 1605 by Domenico Tasselli, supporting Giacomo Grimaldi's notes. Few paintings were still visible in the half nave left standing after the progressive demolition which started from the apse a century earlier. On the right wall, Grimaldi could describe all but three of the twenty-two subjects remaining, thirteen of them drawn by Tasselli. Advising that the narration could be followed from apse to facade, the upper register aligned two episodes concerning Noah's Ark, six about Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (including Abraham greetings the Angels, the Sacrifice of Isaac, the Blessing of Jacob). It is thought that the demolished twelve bays featured the first part of the Genesis, from the Creation to Cain and Abel. The lower register showed an Exodus sequence ending with Moses Closing the Waters. The destroyed previous bays must have illustrated Patriarch Joseph's life. The New Testament cycle on the facing wall had mostly disappeared by the early Seventeenth Century. Only the Baptism, the Raising of Lazarus, the Crucifixion, the Anastasis, Christ appearing to the eleven Apostles and the Blessing at Bethany could be recognized by Grimaldi. Tasselli transcribed five of them in the watercolour. It is almost certain that the Baptism concluded an Infancy cycle starting with the Annunciation. The Raising of Lazarus (not drawn by Tasselli) was usually put at the end of Christ's public life, probably depicted in the lower register. Christ's apparitions must have been the conclusion of a sequence related to the Passion and linked to Peter's Mission in the transept. Not all the paintings dated back to the early Christian period. We are barely informed about restorations occurring in Ninth Century, under Pope Leo IV (847-855) and Pope Formosus (891-896). Further alterations must have been done before Giotto's work on the North clerestory. The representation of the Anastasis seems to appear not early than the Seventh Century; the huge Crucifixion, filling four pictorial fields, could be the enlargement of the primitive scene. As we are focusing on Old St Peter's as a source and inspiration of Romanesque church decoration (paraphrasing the title of a worthy essay by Herbert Leon Kessler), it is not our aim to determine sequence and nature of early restorations. What is important is that St Peter's decoration affected, over eight Centuries, many following monumental cycles, also in Romanesque Lombardy. St Paul's Outside the Walls was erected during Constantine's reign along the consular Via Ostiense, in a place traditionally referred to the Apostle of the Gentiles' decapitation. Around 385 Theodosius had the middle-size edifice demolished to begin the construction of Rome's second largest church, completed around 400 by the Emperor's sons Honorius and Valentinian. It was an imposing five-aisled Basilica inspired by St Peter's. Restorations were undertaken by Pope Leo the Great (440-461), whose name was inscribed on the mosaic of the triumphal arch, later described by pope Hadrian I (772-795): "the Savior with the Twenty-Four elders in mosaic which from the time of Leo I had been faithfully worshiped". Many later interventions are recorded, from Leo III (795-816) to Benedict XIV (1740-1758). Until 1823, when it was heavily damaged by a fire, St Paul's was the only imperial Basilica to have survived the Middle Ages nearly intact. It represented a prototype of early Christian art and architecture, both with classical elements and medieval features. Nevertheless, soon after the fire the edifice was completely demolished and rebuilt, retaining only the mosaics, although radically restored, the forty rounded Popes' portraits, fragments of columns, epigraphs and few other things. Barberini watercolors (1635) are useful to render the painted cycle of the nave, which was arranged from the triumphal arch to the facade on the wavelength of St Peter's. On the right southern wall scenes from Old Testament Books were unfolded in forty-two panels on two rows, corresponding to the twenty-one intercolumniations. Like in St Peter's, but with four panels fewer, the cycle started next to the triumphal arch with the Book of Genesis, from the Creation of the World to Jacob's Blessing and Dream. The lower register depicted Joseph's and Moses' sequences, up to Angels killing the firstborn Egyptians. On the left northern wall the narration was drawn from the Book of Acts. It began with three Stephan's episodes (Preaching, Persecution, Martyrdom), followed by thirty-nine panels featuring Paul's mission to the Gentiles: from Saulo persecuting the Christians to Peter and Paul's Meeting in Rome, going through journeys, preachings, baptism and miracles. Between the clerestory windows were aligned forty-four Old Testament standing figures, mostly Prophets. The replication of St Peter's architecture and ornamental system reinforced the popular doctrine of Concordia Apostolorum, depicting the two Apostles working together in harmony as missionaries in the pagan Rome. At the same time, as affirmed by Herbert Leon Kessler (2002), this propagandistic operation "established St Peter's as the paradigm of basilica decoration. It also legitimized the very act of copying; just as St Paul's reflected St Peter's, so too might other painting cycles". The two Roman decorations were going to play an essential role throughout the Middle Ages. As is the case, for example, of the Benedictine church of S. Calocero in Civate, near Lake Como. In early Twelfth Century, the nave was decorated by an Old Testament cycle unfolded from the North-West corner to the South-West one, in a circular way, and eventually split by vaults which were made later. The starting episodes, depicting Moses, the Pharaoh and the Seven Plagues, were probably affected by the Exodus sequence of St Paul's. For the following scenes, referring to Joshua, Gideon, Sampson, Elias and Judah Maccabee, the commissioner maybe looked at the mid-Fifth Century mosaics of S. Maria Maggiore in Rome. Still, an original iconographic tradition coming from Milan, the city of St Ambrose, cannot be excluded. Unfortunately, nothing remains of the early Christian painted cycles of Milan. The cathedral complex included two main churches, one of them split in five aisles like St Peter's and St Paul's. The complex was completely demolished dating from 1386 in order to built a new gothic edifice, without surveying any structure or decoration. Despite that, a poem composed by Ambrose (or someone else), at the end of the Fourth Century, let us suppose the existence of an Old Testament cycle, starting with Noah, i.e. Genesis. In effect, preserved Romanesque Genesis' sequences in Lombardy, even if strongly fragmented, seem to reflect slightly different models from those of St Peter's and St Paul's, as we are going to discover in St. Vincent in Galliano and in St Thomas in Acquanegra sul Chiese, the church of a Benedictine Monastery. Still referring to Milan, Old St Ambrose's basilica, founded by Ambrose himself around 386, was also completely pulled down to make room for the Romanesque structure. Neither descriptions nor drawings are available. All that remains are: some columns; the sculpted sarcophagus of Stilicone, re-used as a base of the Romanesque pulpit; a small porphyry sarcophagus, probably destined to Ambrose himself; a bronze snake coming from Constantinople; an opus sectile panel drawing the Holy Lamb. In Northern Italy, the space of narrative in early Middle Ages is first of all represented by the exceptional, as well as unique, Infancy cycle of S. Maria foris portas in Castelseprio, fifty Km North-West from Milan. Executed by a gifted Greek workshop, probably coming from Constantinople, this extremely classical and naturalistic work doesn't seem to reflect a local tradition nor did it affect the following Latin painting. From its rediscovering in 1947, its chronology has been the topic of an endless academic debate, swinging from Sixth to Tenth Century, each time with persuasive arguments. Still, recent scientific analyses seem to converge to the first half of the Tenth Century, as supposed sixty-four years ago by Kurt Weitzmann. The Latin West own tradition can be traced in St Savior's in Brescia. The three aisled Basilica of S. Giulia's female Monastery was founded by King Desiderius, his wife Ansa and their son Adelchi in 753. Whether the actual edifice is still the Lombard one, or a Carolingian rebuilt under the reign of Louis the Pious (814-840), is currently in debate. For many reasons, upon which I cannot dwell, I agree with those scholars who consider it the original Lombard church, even though provided with a crypt some years later. The nave shows poor fragments of Christ's cycle on three registers, including some unidentified hagiographical scenes on the lower row of the South wall. Etc.