Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller

Links to this page can be found in Book 6 and Day 2.

In this page:
The plate by Giuseppe Vasi
Today's view
S. Agnese
S. Costanza

The Plate (No. 103)

S. Agnese fuori delle Mura is one of the most ancient churches of Rome and it is dedicated to a very popular Roman martyr, yet Giuseppe Vasi did not include it in his 1753 book of etchings covering the most important churches of the Eternal City; this because S. Agnese was located not only outside the walls of the city, but also along Via Nomentana, a very minor road, while other ancient basilicas outside the walls such as S. Paolo, S. Sebastiano and S. Lorenzo were situated along important roads and were included in the pious itineraries which were recommended to pilgrims. The neighbourhood where the church was located had been scarcely populated for centuries, but at the beginning of the XVIIIth century the situation changed slightly and Pope Clement XI turned S. Agnese into a parish church; thus Vasi could show it in his 1756 book covering the parish churches.
In the description below the plate Vasi made reference to: 1) old temple now S. Costanza; 2) Monastero di S. Agnese; 3) house of the parish priest; 4) Via Nomentana; 5) ancient walls. The small 1883 map shows: 1) S. Costanza; 2) S. Agnese; 3) Via Nomentana; 4) Porta Pia; 5) Villa Torlonia. 4) and 5) are covered in other pages.

Today

The view in June 2010

The façade of S. Agnese did not receive a lot of attention during the Renaissance and Baroque periods because in 1527 a broad staircase was built which leads directly to the interior of the church from the entrance to the monastery in Via Nomentana. A few minor additions to the façade were removed in the XXth century to restore its VIIth century appearance and cypresses were planted in the small garden in front of it.
Vasi showed also S. Costanza in his etching, but the building is located a hundred yards from S. Agnese and is hidden by a small mound.

S. Agnese

(left) Interior; (right) detail of the apse mosaic portraying Pope Honorius I presenting the basilica (you may wish to see a page on the mosaics in the churches of Rome)

According to tradition S. Agnese was initially built by Emperor Constantine at the request of his daughter Costanza on the site where St. Agnes was buried. The church was entirely rebuilt by Pope Honorius I in 625-638. Together with the oldest part of S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura, it is the only ancient church of Rome which retains a matroneum, a gallery from which women attended ceremonies, but in all churches women prayed in a space reserved to them.

(left) Columns of different stone in the nave; (right) columns of the "matroneum"

The columns are antiques from some pagan temple, and so appear to be most of their capitals. In the upper order there is a mixture of ancient and modern capitals; one is rather Byzantine in character. Some of the others are Corinthian and some Composite, and they all have the pulvino. (..) One may trace the gradual increase of Byzantine influence.
Thomas Graham Jackson - Byzantine and Romanesque Architecture - 1913
The addition of a pulvinus, a piece in the form of a truncated pyramid and bearing a cross, above the capital is typical of developments which occurred at Ravenna and at Constantinople.
You may wish to see the very fine gallery of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus at Constantinople.

Decorative elements which were removed during the early XVIIth century restoration of the church: (left) niche with a fresco; (right) fragments of the "schola cantorum"

In early churches the area (aka schola cantorum) used by the clergy and the choir during worship was separated from the nave by a low marble screen (the best preserved one in Rome is at S. Clemente). This usage was abandoned in Roman churches, especially after the rules established by Pope Pius V for the celebration of Mass. Some ancient fragments of the schola cantorum, together with inscriptions were affixed on the walls of the broad staircase leading to the church. A decorated niche was also moved to this passage. Its crux gemmata (studded cross) on the mountain of the four rivers (Genesis 2: 10-14) is a typical early representation of Jesus, e.g. at S. Apollinare in Classe at Ravenna or at Uppenna in Tunisia; a real crux gemmata was utilized in processions, e.g. that of Desiderius; see the four rivers in another mosaic in Tunisia.

(left) Bust of Jesus most likely by Nicolas Cordier (previously attributed to Michelangelo) and relief portraying Sts. Stephen and Lawrence (school of Andrea Bregno); (centre/right) heraldic symbol and coat of arms of Pope Paul V on the main altar

According to tradition Agnes of Rome was put to death during the persecution of Emperor Diocletian because she refused to marry; for this reason she is the patron saint of chastity and of virgins; another church dedicated to her was built on the site of her martyrdom (today's Piazza Navona).
Nicolas Cordier was a talented sculptor (see his monument to Silvestro Aldobrandini) and also an excellent "restorer" of ancient statues which he turned into Renaissance masterpieces.

1606 wooden ceiling built by Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfondrati which is similar to those of S. Maria in Aracoeli and S. Sebastiano

Pope Paul V built a new altar beneath which he placed the remains of the saint in a silver shrine; after performing the solemn function on January 21, 1621, he fell gravely ill and he passed away a few days later.
Agnes is similar to agnus, the Latin word for lamb, and the saint is usually portrayed with a lamb in her arms or at her feet (see the image used as background for this page which is based on a painting inside the church). On January 21, the saint's feast, two lambs are blessed; their wool is woven to make the pallium, a vestment worn by the pope.

(left) Bell tower; (centre) medieval tower at the entrance to the monastery; (right-above) ancient fragments on the wall of the tower; (right-below) coat of arms of Cardinal Giuliano Della Rovere

For a long time the church belonged to a convent of nuns, but Pope Sixtus IV assigned it to the Canons Regular of S. Giovanni in Laterano; Cardinal Giuliano Della Rovere, a nephew of the Pope who became Pope Julius II in 1503, restored the church and the monastery.

Catacomb of St. Agnes: two plates from "Francis Wey - Rome, its Churches, Monuments, Art, and Antiquities - 1903 English edition"

We enter by a staircase attributed to the time of Constantine. The passages are lined with the usual loculi for the dead, sometimes adapted for a single body, sometimes for two laid together. (..) A flight of steps leads down to what James Spencer Northcote calls "the Lady Chapel", where, over the altar, is a fresco of a woman in prayer, without a nimbus, with outstretched arms, with a child in front of her. (..) The graves throughout almost all the catacombs have been rifled, the bones which they contained being distributed as relics throughout Roman Catholic Christendom, and most of the sarcophagi and inscriptions removed to the Lateran and other museums.
Augustus J. C. Hare - Walks in Rome - 1875

Musei Vaticani: fragment of a sarcophagus from the cemetery of S. Agnese

An early Christian cemetery and a catacomb were situated near S. Agnese. Their frescoes and reliefs illustrate episodes of both the Old and the New Testament. The sarcophagus shown above depicts: (left) traditio legis, i.e. Jesus handing over the New Law to St. Peter (see a sarcophagus at Ravenna depicting the same subject); (right) Daniel in the lions' den. The first relief had the specific purpose of highlighting the importance of St. Peter, the first Bishop of Rome.

Musei Capitolini: "The Old Drunkard"; it was found in 1620 near S. Agnese. It is a Roman copy from a lost original of the IIIrd century BC

This statue was thought to portray a drunken priestess of Bacchus, but eventually it was associated with Anus Ebria one of 52 famous statues outside Rome which were listed by Pliny the Elder in his Historia Naturalis: As to Myron, who is so highly praised for his works in bronze, there is by him at Smyrna, An Old Woman Intoxicated, a work that is held in high estimation. It might portray a character of a comedy by Aristophanes e.g. Ecclesiazusae (A Parliament of Women) in which three crones play minor roles.

S. Costanza

Front view with evidence of a niche of a lost narthex

The Church Saint Costanza, is a long mile out of the gate Pia and was of old dedicated to Bacchus, where is a most faire sepulcher and large, of porphry, ten ordinary spannes deepe, and fifteene long, curiously engraven with boyes quaffing, and bearing cups of wine, as in a Feast of Bacchus, which some thinke to be the sepulcher of Constantia a Virgine, daughter to Constantine, but the engraving like a Feast of Bacchus seemes more ancient, and to be wrought by the Heathen Romans, and it is vulgarly called the sepulcher of Bacchus. This Church is of a round forme and little, but very faire, and borne up with twelve rowes of marble pillars, set in a round compasse.
Fynes Moryson - An Itinerary: Containing His Ten Years Travel Through .. Italy (in 1594).

(left) Rear view: (right) side view showing a round staircase

According to the prevailing opinion at Vasi's time the mausoleum of Costanza (or Costantina), daughter of Emperor Constantine, was a Temple to Bacchus which had been adapted to house the sarcophagus of Costanza; this view was based on the mosaic decoration of the vaults of the ambulatory of the building which showed scenes of putti working in a vineyard, a very popular subject. These scenes however could also be consistent with symbols adopted by the early Christians (you may wish to see a sarcophagus found near S. Urbano alla Caffarella); in addition the circular shape of the building is typical of Roman mausoleums and similar to that housing the sarcophagus of St. Helena, Costanza's grandmother.

(left) Interior (arranged for a wedding); ; (right) twin columns

Costanza was cured of leprosy after having prayed at the tomb of St. Agnes and she decided not to marry; the mausoleum was turned into a church in the XIIIth century; Costanza is not a recognized saint. Notwithstanding the original purpose of the building, S. Costanza is regarded as an excellent location for weddings, probably because relatives and guests have a better view of the ceremony than in a traditional church. You may wish to see the interior of S. Stefano Rotondo, another ancient round church of Rome which also is a popular wedding location.

Sarcophagus of Costanza (at Museo Pio-Clementino, a copy is in the mausoleum); you may wish to see ancient porphyry sarcophagi at Constantinople and medieval ones at Palermo

In the Corner of this Church is that Rare Tomb of Bacchus, made all of porphir, and though made many hunderd yeares agoe, it looks as fresh as if it were newly carved. It is made all of one stone, and of a very vast Bignesse, but so rarely well carved on the out side, with vines and grapes and Bacchus'es on the sides, that it is esteemed to be one of the rarest pieces of Antiquity in all Rome.
Francis Mortoft's Journal of his travels in France and Italy in 1659

Galleria Spada: details of two small paintings by Pieter Van Laer (1599-1641) aka il Bamboccio

Because of the references to the grape harvest in the sarcophagus and in the mosaics, the Bentvueghels (birds of a feather), i.e. the Flemish artists living in Rome, used to meet at inns near S. Costanza where they showed their devotion to Bacchus. You may wish to see a drawing by Pieter Van Laer showing Bentvueghels in a Roman tavern (it opens in another window) and their yearly gathering at Ninfeo di Egeria.
They did not join Accademia di S. Luca, the guild of the Roman artists, which meant they did not receive commissions from churches. They usually painted small scenes of Roman life with a penchant for dramatic ones for a foreign clientele and they were called bamboccianti (makers of puppets) by their Roman colleagues. Their association was dissolved by Papal authorities in 1720, but the yearly gatherings of the foreign artists continued until ca 1870.

Mosaics portraying scenes of grape harvest in the vaults of the ambulatory around the central space

In several places of the roof are to be seen very fresh the pictures of bunches of grapes and several things belonging to the vintage. The freshness of the colours and rudeness of the figures makes me doubt whether this was ancient Roman painting or no.
John Ray - Observations (..) made in a journey through part of (..) Italy in 1663
Grape harvesting by children or Cupids was a very popular subject for floor mosaics: very fine examples can be seen in Tunisia and Algeria. These scenes decorated also other works of art, e.g. the Blue Vase of Pompeii or frescoes at Cologne or sarcophagi at Narbonne.

Details of the mosaics with early Christian symbols: peacock=Resurrection; drinking doves=Christians achieving Divine Grace, a subject which was already popular, see a mosaic from Villa Adriana

The mosaics which decorated the vault of the central hall are lost, but those in the ambulatory can still be admired (they were restored in the XIXth century); they are divided into sections; in addition to those of the grape harvests, some are based on geometric patterns and in others a variety of objects, fruits and birds seem to float in the air. You may wish to see the influence these mosaics had on the decoration of Villa Giulia and other Renaissance buildings.

Mosaic in a niche depicting Jesus giving the keys to St. Peter (traditio clavis) (the related passage by Matthew is written in the drum of S. Pietro)

Two small niches house mosaics which are regarded as the earliest surviving depictions of St. Peter in Rome. The mosaics were restored several times, the last one in the XIXth century, and some details were modified. In this mosaic St. Peter is portrayed as a young man, an iconography which was abandoned in later depictions of the Apostle. Jesus, instead is a mature man with dark hair sitting on a globe.

Mosaic in a niche depicting Jesus handing the law to St. Peter (traditio legis)

The inscription was badly restored and refers to peace (Dominus pacem dat), but the original sentence was Dominus legem dat. In this mosaic the iconographies of Jesus and of St. Peter are reversed; the former is a shaved blonde young man, the latter a bearded failing old man. This iconography is more in line with that which can be noticed in mosaics at Mausoleo di Galla Placidia (Vth century) and at S. Vitale (VIth century) in Ravenna.
The quality of the mosaics in the niches is inferior to that of those in the vault of the ambulatory; they might have been made by different teams and they are generally dated 360 AD.

(above) Remaining wall seen from S. Costanza; (below) the same wall and its supporting structures

The remains of a thick wall to the right of the mausoleum are thought to have been part of a very large courtyard which surrounded the mausoleum. Because of their curved shape initially they were believed to be part of a hippodrome.

Next plate in Book 6: S. Maria a Trevi.
Next step in Day 2 itinerary: Piazza Barberini.

Excerpts from Giuseppe Vasi 1761 Itinerary related to this page:

Chiesa di S. Agnese fuori le Mura Si crede esser ancor questa edificata da Costantino Magno ad insinuazione di Costanza sua sorella o figlia, che gli sia stata. Per la lunghezza de' secoli ebbe bisogno questa chiesa di vari ristauramenti; e rimane in oggi quasi sotto terra, e rivoltata dalla parte opposta alla moderna strada; perciò dalla porta laterale si scendono 36. gradini, né quali si vedono molte memorie antiche e sagre. La chiesa ha due ordini di colonne uno sopra l'altro, ed Onorio I. che fu del 630. fecevi il mosaico nella tribuna, ed il ciborio di ottone dorato, che poi da Paolo V. fu rifatto di marmo con 4. colonne di porfido, rinnovando ancora il prezioso altare, in cui giace il corpo della s. Verginella, e fece la statua di alabastro e di metallo dorato per opera di Niccolò Cordiera. Sono ammirabili alcune colonne della nave per essere striate e di marmo assai raro: ma molto più ammirabile è l'urna di porfido, in cui per molto tempo stette quel sagro pegno, che ora si vede nel vicino tempio rotondo convertito in Chiesa di S. Costanza Per le immagini di putti baccanti con grappoli di uva scolpiti sulla maravigliosa urna di porfido , che ivi si vede , si disse erroneamente sepolcro di Bacco , e tempio di Bacco , perchè ancora nella volta di questo vi fono de' putti baccanti similmente con uve, e strumenti da raccogliere 1' uva lavorati di rozzo mosaico. E' questo di figura sferica con cupola in mezzo sostenuta da ventiquattro colonne di granito , e si crede , che sia stato eretto per edifizio sepolcrale , o pure per battistero, come altrove dicemmo. Tanto questo , quanto la chiesa di S. Agnese stanno in cura de' Canonici Regolari di s. Salvatore . Nel basso della valle si vedono delle rovine , credute dell' ippodromo di Costantino, e dopo un miglio il ponte Nomentano .