DIONYSUS – CHURCH OF SANTA COSTANZA (TEMPLE OF BACCHUS)
320-350 AD
AKA: The Mausoleum of Saint Constantina (or, Constantia / Constantiana), the daughter of Roman Emperor Constantine I the Great (who legalized Christianity in 313 with his Edict of Milan)
Ambulatory vault ceiling mosaics:
Medieval Art, Stokstad, 1986, p. 29, chapter 2, “The Art of the Triumphant Christian Church | Christian Architecture in the Fourth Century”:
Technically, there’s enough erotic and orgiastic talk there to fill an entire ballroom, surrounding the words “Christian,” “Christ,” “Biblical scenes,” etc.
P. 28, chapter 2, illustration 10:
(“Putti” / putto [singular] is an Italian word for Erotes / Eros / Cupid(s):
The Invisible Made Visible: Angels from the Vatican, Duston / Nesselrath, 1998, p. 313, “Glossary | putto”:
)
Art History, Stokstad, Revised Edition, 1999, Vol. 1, pp. 300-302, “Imperial Christian Architecture and Art | Central-Plan Churches”:
P. 300, figure 7-15:
P. 302, figure 7-17:
Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph, Elsner, 1998, p. 164, illustration 112:
The Origins of Christian Art, Gough, 1973, pp. 80-81, “From Constantine to Justinian”:
Again, Christians used pagan themes because they hadn’t yet established their own motifs: pagan themes were used to best communicate their ideals to the overwhelming mass of pagans of that era.
P. 81:
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P. 82, illustration 70:
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P. 83, illustration 71:
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The Origins of Christian Art, Gough, 1973, p. 207, “List of Illustrations”:
The Decline of Rome, Vogt, 1967 (translated from German), illustration 41, “Pagan into Christian Art”:
Early Christian Painting, Pierre du Bourguet, 1965, p. 23, “The Subjects Represented | Symbols”:
P. 36, “The Artistic Interest of Early Christian Painting | Decoration”:
(“Amorini” are Erotes / Cupids / Putto.)
Figure 134:
“List of Plates | Early Christian painting in other sites”:
Figure 135:
“List of Plates | Early Christian painting in other sites”:
Figure 139 [grapes]:
“List of Plates | Early Christian painting in other sites”:
Sexualia: From Prehistory to Cyberspace, Bishop / Osthelder, 2001, p. 335, “The Erotic Muse – Art and Artifice | The Naked Body”:
Ancient Mosaics, Ling, 1998, p. 99, “Wall and Vault Mosaics”:
Pp. 106-109:
I still say that Eros and vine art back then would be like a church today placing a picture of the Playboy Bunny at its entrance. You see, people today would know what the “Playboy Bunny” represents. And since no church today would do so, shows that there has definitely been a “change” since early Christianity. And Costanza art especially is definitely the root of the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.
If you were Jesus today, it’d be like you saying at your Last Supper “each of you take one of these stuffed toy rabbits with the bowtie and keep them in remembrance of Me.” What would that symbolize today?
http://www.rome101.com/Christian/Costanza/, Santa Costanza:
Archaeologists seem to agree that this is one of the most intact Roman structures of its period, standing generally as it was built … The mosaics of the ambulatory include typical Bacchic grape harvest and winemaking scenes. While there is evidence of considerable sharing between Christian and pagan symbols of this period, there is no basis for a Christian interpretation to these mosaics, despite claims to the contrary by apologists and some writers focused on Christian lore. A Christian interpretation of these mosaics would require total redefinition of Christian/pagan iconography, and would result in a completely arbitrary boundary between these and other similar artworks known to be strictly pagan - particularly those from the pre-Christian era.
http://www.hp.uab.edu/image_archive/ulg/ulgd.html (Univ. of Alabama), Late Roman ecclesiastical synthesis:
2. Mosaic of female bacchantes and putti, first half 4th century (Rome: S. Costanza ambulatory vault):
3. Apse mosaic from the same basilica showing Christ and Peter, 4th c. A.D. (Rome: Basilica of S. Costanza):
4. Mosaic from 1st half of 4th c. A.D. (Rome: Santa Costanza), much restored. This is one of the oldest Christian mosaics. It is naturalistic in composition and employs pagan motifs, but adapted to Christian ends:
Baptistery example:
Early Christian Art, W. F. Volbach, 1961, plate 27, “Rome, Baptistery of the Lateran, interior”:
(http://www.answers.com/baptistery, “baptistery”:
baptistery (băp'tĭstrē) , part of a church, or a separate building in connection with it, used for administering baptism. In the earliest examples it was merely a basin or pool set into the floor. Later, the Christian Church set aside a separate structure for the ceremony. The earliest such structure still extant is in the Lateran basilica at Rome (above), in which, by tradition, Emperor Constantine was baptized (337). …
The octagonal plan of the Lateran Baptistery, the first structure expressly built as a baptistry, provided a widely-followed model, which might be twelve-sided, or even circular as at Pisa.)
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Early Christian Art, W. F. Volbach, 1961, plate 31, “Rome, Santa Costanza, interior. View of the S. ambulatory”:
The place does look like a baptistery.
Plate 32, “Rome, Santa Costanza. Part of the mosaics in the N.ambulatorium, with a portrait of Constantina (d. 354) and Bacchic scenes”:
Plate 34, “Rome, Santa Costanza. Part of a mosaic in the vault of the S. ambulatorium”:
Plate 35, “Rome, Santa Costanza. Mosaics in the vault of the E. ambulatorium”:
A Handbook of Roman Art, Henig, 1983, p. 65:
The Decline of Rome, Vogt, 1967 (translated from German), pp. 289-290, “Cultural Change Reflected in Art”:
Illustration 42, “Pagan into Christian Art”:
http://www.britannica.com/eb/print?tocId=47303&fullArticle=false (Encyclopaedia Britannica), Roman and early Christian > Republic and empire > Stylistic development:
Finally, evolving into the early Christian art to come, the Constantinian mausoleum of Santa Costanza
These same Eros / Cupid and vine / grape motifs are seen in lots of later Christian art. They just changed the name of Eros / Cupid to “cherub,” “putto” and “angel,” and simply just don’t relate the vines / grapes to Dionysus / Bacchus.
Actually called the “Temple of Bacchus” (“Tempio di Bacco”):
http://www.santagnese.org/antologia_scostanza.htm, (translated from Italian) Critical anthology of S. Costanza:
"Some archaeologists claim that the baptistery, now the church of Santa Costanza, is a former temple of Bacchus as the time you see a circular mosaic of enamels representing putti and bunches of grapes. But the Christians of the early centuries often used these symbols.
http://www.santagnese.org/mausoleo.htm, (translated from Italian) The Mausoleum of S. Costanza:
Typical case of adaptation of pagan themes in the Christian tradition, have meant that the mausoleum was long identified with the Temple of Bacchus.
http://www.activitaly.it/monument/mausolscostanza.htm, (Translated from Italian) “Mausoleum of Santa Costanza”:
Interesting example because of adaptation of pagan themes in the Christian tradition, just as the mausoleum has long been identified with the Temple of Bacchus.
http://www.romeartlover.it/Vasi103.htm, “Church of S. Costanza”:
(translated from Italian): Church of St. Constance: For images of putti Baccanti with bunches of grapes carved on the urn of porphyry wonder that there can be seen, mistakenly thought the tomb of Bacchus and Temple of Bacchus, because even in this time there fono de’ putti Baccanti similarly with grapes, and instruments to collect 1’ grape machined rough mosaic.
http://www.tunickart.com/artists/piranesi.html, “Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Santa Costanza (Tempio di Bacco), etching, 1756”
http://www.pierotrincia.it/eng/show.asp?cat=STAMPE&sub=2:
Description: Plan of Tempio di Bacco ( S.Costanza) drawing by slope 1780.
http://rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/laserdisk/0196/19627.JPG (via http://rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/bytype/arch.sources/desgodetz/display00010.html); Plate I, church, S. Costanza (Temple of Bacchus):
http://rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/laserdisk/0196/19639.JPG (via http://rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/bytype/arch.sources/desgodetz/display00011.html); Plate IV, church, S. Costanza (Temple of Bacchus):
http://www.inroma.roma.it/arardeco/1922/22_II/Art1/II1T.html, (translated from Italian) Origins of Christian Parietal Mosaic (III):
Of the rest the time ring-like of S. Costanza it had its immediate reply paves them in the round one in monochromium that was in the classroom of the center. It was this mosaic of therefore profane appearance that was perhaps cause of the false denomination of "Temple of Bacchus" given to the Mausoleum.
http://www.ecole-francaise.it/suburbium/Nomentana/88.htm, (translated from Italian) Mausoleum of S. Costanza N° 88:
The Mausoleum of Costantina has been called from the humanists "temple of Bacchus" for the mosaic decorations presents
http://www.municipioroma2.it/municipioville_index_2col.php?id=3_3_0, (translated from Italian) The consular roads and the way Nomentana:
This ancient Mausoleum of Constantina (wrongly known as Constanza, and that is precisely found in S. Costanza Public square) was said in the Renaissance the Temple of Bacchus for the scenes depicted in its vintage [grape harvest] mosaics (IV century).
http://omega.cohums.ohio-state.edu/mailing_lists/CLA-L/1999/12/0361.php (Ohio State University), Re: QUERY: eucharistic Ceres & Bacchus:
Many thanks to Diana Wright for checking Grabar. And thanks for the reference to the early Christian sarcophagus with putti---I think this would be the one in the Lateran Museum. I gather that art historians assume that the Dionysiac imagery is authorized by John 15:1-5. And thanks also for the reference to one of my favorite Christian churches, the delightful Santa Costanza in Rome. Appropriately, in the Renaissance this was called the "Tempio di Bacco." I see that Michael Gough ("Origins of Christian Art," p.80) says: "Oddly, if it was a Christian building from the first, the decoration was... blatantly Dionysiac." And a bit later he says: "So, the inescapable conclusion is that, before the establishment of a Christian funerary iconography, there was a Dionysiac cycle which, mutatis mutandis, was thought acceptable for the Church too." But he doesn't spell out what the Christian "spin" on Dionysus & Co. would have been One scholar who *does* (in passing, anyway) is Thomas F. Mathew in "The Clash of Gods: A Reinterpretation of Early Christian Art" (Princeton, 1993): "Early Christian art is rich with Dionysiac associations whether in boisterous representations of agape [that's the Gk. noun there, not the Eng. adj.!] feasting, in the miracle of water-into-wine at Cana, in vine and wine motifs alluding to the Eucharist, and most markedly, as we shall see, in the use of Dionysiac facial traits for representations of Christ" (p. 45).
http://omega.cohums.ohio-state.edu/mailing_lists/CLA-L/1999/12/0359.php (Ohio State University), Re: QUERY: eucharistic Ceres & Bacchus:
Looking in Andre Grabar's Christian Iconography, I don't see specific Bacchus/Ceres imagery, but there is an interesting sarcophagus with 3 "good shepherds" in Fig. 18 which has a lot of fat little guys with wings climbing over grape vines & milking goats. Fig. 76 has a mosaic from S. Costanza of putti harvesting grapes; 77 has putti harvesting wheat from a sarcophagus; 78-79 has putti from catacombs. The book has a number of similar transitional objects.
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Diana Wright
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David Lupher wrote:
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> Just when the libraries are all closed---and, worse,
when most of you
> are away---I need to know if anyone is
aware of instances where Ceres and
> Bacchus appear in Christian religious contexts (esp. church
decorations)
> as Eucharistic symbols. I've checked what I happen to have within
reach
> (Seznec, Wind, several books by Panofsky), to no avail. Help!
>
> David Lupher
> Classics Dept.
> Univ. of Puget Sound