FRESCO OF S. ABBACIRO, 757-767 CE. ATRIUM OF S. MARIA ANTIQUA This open-air space was covered with frescoes by the C7, when a hall and rooms behind it, probably a guardhouse protecting the entrance to the Domitianic ramp that gave access to the imperial palace of the Domus Tiberiana, was converted into a church in the mid C6. This monastic saint, Abbot Cyrus or Abbaciro, under the rule of pope Paul I in the mid C8, was painted in the linear, hieratic style of Byzantine art. Paul I welcomed many refugees from the East who were fleeing the iconoclastic persecution then underway. We see the elderly, bearded saint, his brow furrowed, looking out at us frontally. In one of his hands he holds a small case with a surgeon's instruments in it. Inside the church was a chapel dedicated to the doctor saints, like Abbaciro, Cosmas, and Damian. The ill faithful could sleep overnight in the chapel, hoping to get a healing dream from these "anargyroi", "those who cure without payment".

A warm orange halo illuminates this #fresco from the atrium of #SantaMariaAntiqua in the #Forum in #Rome. The series of #Domitian's halls at the base of the #DomusTiberiana were converted into a church in the C6. For #FrescoFriday we're looking at this doctor saint from 757-767. #AncientBluesky 🏺

SARCOPHAGUS WITH CLIPEUS AND VICTORIES, C. 250 CE. SANTA MARIA ANTIQUA One of the interesting things about burials in the palaeochristian church of S. Maria Antiqua in the Forum is the high quality of the reused non-Christian sarcophagi found under the floor of the church. That is, they were prestige objects even though they were never intended to be seen, unlike during their previous existence. This box of Proconnesian marble is of a familiar C3 typology, with a very fine portrait of the deceased, this one a stylish lady with Marcel waves in her hair, her head turned slightly to her right, and one of her hands emerging from her cloak. This portrait is contained in a clipeus that is being held up by two somewhat androgynous winged Victories. They are looking away from the clipeus and toward two Erotes at the corners. Two more Erotes are supporting the clipeus from below, while in a boat. To the left is a figure of Oceanus with a sea monster by his feet, and to the right is a river god holding a cornucopia, with a sheep and calf reclining at his feet. The lid is the front of another sarcophagus, but this is modern spolia, not ancient: it was found near the Fount of Juturna well outside the church.

#SarcophagusSaturday brings us back to the church of #SantaMariaAntiqua to find a mid-C3 CE #sarcophagus of imported #Greek #marble reused to bury a C6-C9 #Christian under the church floor. The #spolia #sarcophagus front was put here as a lid after it was found in the early 20th. #AncientBluesky 🏺