MARBLE SLAB: TOP PHOTO, COSMATESQUE CREST OF NICHOLAS V, C. 1450. BOTTOM PHOTO, ROMANESQUE PLUTEUS FROM A SACRED ENCLOSURE, C9 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS When this slab was carved for use in a schola cantorum or a presbytery enclosure in the C9, it was undoubtedly already a piece of spolia from some ancient monument. But it was carved with a typical Romanesque design of arches containing crosses, all richly decorated with guilloches, and six birds per arch carrying food in their beaks (a metaphor for the Eucharist), with couples of splendid grimacing wild felines. The reuse of classical motifs like the column, the arch, and the guilloche indicates a desire to associate the authority of the Church with that of the ancient empire. The same impulse can be seen in the 1450 inlay on the other side, which employs the imperial stones, porphyry and serpentine, to assert papal authority.

#SpoliaSunday takes us into the #VaticanMuseums, where visitors to the Stanza della #Segnatura, one of the #Raphael Rooms, walked across a #spolia marble slab inlaid with a #Cosmatesque version of the #crest of #NicholasV which was a reused C9 piece of a schola cantorum. #AncientBluesky 🏺

ON THIS DAY > 6 March 1447. Tommaso Parentucelli is elected as Pope Nicholas V (1447-55) at the Dominican church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome. #nicholasv #fraangelico #renaissancerome #vatican

SARCOPHAGUS OF ANICIUS PROBUS, 393 CE, REUSED C. 1450. ST PETER'S Sextus Claudius Anicius Petronius Probus (d. 393) was one of the most important members of the predominant noble family of late-antique Rome, the Anicii. His wife built him a grandiose mausoleum attached to the apse of Old St Peter's for his sarcophagus. The front face seen here shows five arched divisions, the centre with Christ holding the crux gemmata and flanked by Peter and Paul; the other arches contain reliefs of male figures, possibly apostles. Probus was left to rest in peace until Nicholas V Parentucelli decided to demolish and extend the apse of the basilica, demolishing the mausoleum of Probus in the process. Whatever remained of poor Probus was dumped out and Nicholas V used his sarcophagus as the basilica's baptismal font, or more precisely set a smaller basin within the box. The arrangement in the photo obviously postdates the new (1698) font by Carlo Fontana and must reuse elements from the Renaissance font, but the "tazza" or basin seems to have been removed and replaced with a marble panel. Above is a sort of small reservoir which must have contained holy water that would emerge from the hole at centre. This reservoir seems to have been made of a spolia basin with a C15 lid, and is emerging from a niche between stone curtains being held back by two angels. This ensemble was said in 1933 to be in a corridor next to the chapel of the Pietà but I can't confirm this.

A #SpoliaSunday extra: the #sarcophagus of the most illustrious senator, consul, and urban prefect #Anicius Probus, grandfather of two emperors, brutally reused by #NicholasV in c. 1450-1455 as the #baptismal #font of Old St Peter's and now who knows where in New St Peter's.