CIBORIUM ARCHES, C8-C9, REUSED IN THE ABBOT'S THRONE, C11. CRYPT OF S. ALESSIO This Aventine church claims a C4 pedigree, but first emerges into written history during the reign of Leo III (795-816) as a diaconia or food distribution centre. The ciborium over the high altar in the upper church could conceivably have been a commission by that pope, who is best known for his coronation of Charlemagne on Christmas Day, 800, in Old St Peter's. The crypt was rebuilt by Cluniac Benedictines in the C11, who had been given the church and its adjoining abbey in c. 1050. Probably this was when the old and rather small ciborium was dismantled and two of its four sides were adapted as the arms of the abbot's throne, as the crypt also functioned as a chapter house. We can clearly see one side of the forner ciborium, with its braided arch and stylised trees, topped by wavy curls.

He's a Cluniac, #Cluniac, on the floor / And he's praying like he's never prayed before! #SpoliaSunday takes us to the #spolia rich #crypt of #SantAlessio on the #Aventine in #Rome, where a reformist community of monks reused a #Romanesque #ciborium to built the abbot's #throne.

CIBORIUM ARCH, C8-C9, RECUT INTO ALTARPIECE FRAME, C16. MUSEO DELLE CIVILTÀ This marble slab has had several lives and started out as a panel in an unknown ancient Roman structure. In the late C8 or early C9 it was given gorgeous Romanesque relief carving and a central arch still visible despite later reuse. It became part of a ciborium or altar canopy in the church of Santa Cornelia along the via Flaminia, part of the huge papal farm or domusculta Capracorum founded by Hadrian I (772-795). The Romanesque is not really Roman-like at all: this is a descendant of Celtic art with barely-recognisable Roman themes, like the peacocks, symbols of immortality, and the grapevine. The technique shows signs of drilling as well as carving, another sophisticated Roman technique for punctuating a relief with a spot of dark shade. Sometime in the C16 this slab, from the by then disassembled ciborium, was turned over and cut into the top part of a square or rectangular frame.

#Spolia was rarely reused only once. For this #SpoliaSunday we're in the #MuseodelleCiviltà to look at the splendid carving of this #Romanesque #ciborium or altar canopy, the marble taken from some ancient #Roman structure, and later reused again as part of an altarpiece frame. #AncientBluesky 🏺

A ciborium with cross atop and an angel holding it below. Mainly green and gold.

#ciborium
#holycommunion
#diamond
#gemstone
#royal
#Christianity