The visual experience of the triumphant Church : the mosaic of S. Maria in Trastevere

The Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere was constructed after the Concordat of Worms (1122), at a time when the original ideals of the Church Reform of the eleventh and twelfth centuries were being replaced by a new strategy intended to demonstrate the power of the papacy. The city of Rome and the Church were emerging from a difficult period of conflict that culminated in the schism provoked by the double election of Innocent II and Anacletus II as pope, an event that deeply marked the church of S. Maria in Trastevere and its decoration. During the Reform of the Church, significant changes took place in visual language, in its processes of elaboration and creation, as well as in the theoretical debates that reflect the historical, political, and cultural changes that involved all of medieval European society. The apse mosaic of S. Maria in Trastevere provides important evidence to understand this transitional period for the Roman Church-- Back cover Cover Table of contents Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Framing the Church Reform in Rome 1.1. The ʻGregorian’ reform 1.2. Analectus II and Innocent II 1.3. The arts and the church reform 1.3.1. Rome: the model 1.3.2. Outside Rome 1.4. The visual experience 2. S. Maria in Trastevere 2.1. Historical sources 2.2. Architecture, restoration, and conservation 2.3. Mosaic conservation 3. The mosaic decoration 3.1. Apse arch: the Apocalypse and the Prefiguration of Christ 3.2. Inscriptions 3.3. Rethinking antiquity: the Amorini 3.4. The intrados 4. The mosaic decoration: apse conch 4.1. The glory of the Triumphant Church 4.2. The symbolic sky and the shadow 4.3. The central message: visualizing the Church 4.4. Speaking images of Cantica Canticorum 4.5. The mosaic of the cavetto. The echo of a nuptial procession? 5. The apse conch: experiencing the visual message 5.1. The Feast of the Assumption 5.2. The image of Mary 5.3. The icon of Christ 5.4. The ʻCodex’ and the ʻVolumenʻ as the visual voice of Christ and Mary 5.5. The image of St. Peter, between antiquarianism and papal symbol 5.6. Saints, martyrs, and popes: the eulogy of Trastevere 5.6.1. The ecclesiastical garments 6. The rhetoric of colors 6.1. The arms of the Church on the triumphal arch 6.2. The color of the tabulae 6.3. The colors of the clothes and the ʻpoetry’ of light 6.4. The connecting labels 7. The inscription in the apse as exegetical synthesis of the decoration 7.1. The rhetorical experience of the Triumphant Church Manuscripts and drawings Bibliography Illustrations