Iconographia spiritualis: arte paleocristã e simbolismo funerário em um fragmento tumular na Basílica de Santa Agnese Fuori Le Mura em Roma - 370-440

Abstract

This thesis is a research about a funerary slab fragment kept in the Basilica of Santa Agnese fuori le mura, in Rome. It is a marble rectangle for covering a grave on the wall of a catacomb. The object is believed to be either from late 4th or early 5th century, and it was made in such a way as to resemble the face of a sarcophagus. Some reliefs with Christian meaning were carved onto the object, together with decorative motifs. These mix aspects originating from the pagan Roman past together with new elements, specifically invented for a Christian public. Through a deep analysis of each one of the formal and iconographical aspects of these reliefs, it was expected to achieve a greater understanding of early Christian art, the process of its development, its relationship with the intellectual and artistic traditions that existed before Christianity, and the religious, political and cultural processes that developed throughout the 4th century. By finding and studying all specialized literature about the object, it was possible to learn how early Christian Archeology and Art History as scientific disciplines came to be, and reveal the secular tradition of its scholarly tools. This allowed for a better understanding of its historiographical controversies. Since burial in marble sarcophagi was a strong tradition in Roman society adopted also by the Christian population the detailed study of these funerary monuments, both pagan and Christian, allowed not only for a better knowledge of ancient funerary sculptures, but also revealed important features of beliefs and expectations about death in Late Antique culture. By comparing ancient texts that reveal changes in the conception of spiritual life and the emergence of new representational traditions, it was our goal to get evidences of the development of a specific Christian visual culture, which included new features as regards both the Classical and Hellenistic past, but preserved some of its more subtle aspects. KEYWORDS: Funerary Sculpture, Roman Sarcophagi, Early Christian Iconography, Late Antiquity.