Paleo-Christianity (2)
The Baptistery of San
Giovanni in Fonte
 The
oldest cathedral in Naples is said to
be Santa Restituta (see that link), now
incorporated as a paleo-Christian
“church within a church” within the
present-day Naples
cathedral—or Duomo. Within
Santa Restituta, however, is a baptistery described by literature about
the
site as the oldest one in Western Christendom. The construction of S.
Restituta
and baptistery goes back to the time of the emperor Constantine the
Great (280-337 AD); this is attested
to by a passage from the life of Pope Silvester I in the Liber
Pontificalis Ecclesiae Romanae: “[…]eodem tempore fecit
Costantinus Augustus basilicam in civitatem Neapolim" (…at that
time, Costantinus Augustus had a basilica built
in the city of Naples). Reliable
archaeology places the construction in the fourth century with the
first modifications done in the fifth century.
Once inside the main cathedral, the entrance to Santa
Restituta is on the left, past the fourth chapel; you enter and are in
the back of this church within a church, facing the apse. On the left
of the apse is a stairway down to Roman and Greek remnants of ancient
Neapolis beneath the Duomo; to the right is a doorway into the
baptistery, itself. The entire baptistery consists of two chambers of
unequal size separated by columns. The larger of the two is the one of
interest and is the first one you enter from the main body of S.
Restituta. It is a square chamber 7.60 meters (25 feet) on a side.
Starting well above eye-level, the walls then create an octagonal base
that culminates in a dome directly above the baptismal font
itself, in this case a sunken bath-sized tub large enough for the rites
of immersion.
Because
of their age, the
mosaics within the baptistery are of considerable interest to
Christians—indeed,
to any historian of religion—and there
is a considerable
body of literature on them. The mosaics start at the center of the
dome, above the font, with a large Christological
monogram; that is, a stylized rendering of the first two Greek
letters
of the name of Christ—X and
P (the sounds ch
and r).
This monogram of the name of Christ is called the Chrismon. In this rendition, it is
flanked by the Greek letters alpha and
omega, the first and
last letters of the Greek alphabet, a reference to the book of
Revelation, chapter 1, verse 11 (KJV): "I am Alpha and Omega, the first
and the last." That is then surrounded by other mosaics that flare out
and down to the octagonal base of the dome. Among
the other mosaics, most of which are fragmentary:
- the Traditio
Legis, meaning "handing
down the law.” It is a common iconographic type in early Christian art.
The image is
based on the Roman formula of the traditio
legis or the Emperor as the lawgiver. A common English
rendering is "Christ the lawgiver." Christ is normally depicted
with the
apostles Peter or Paul or both. In the version in the San Giovanni in fonte
baptistery, Christ is handing Peter a scroll upon which is written Dominus legem dat (God gives the law);
- depiction of the Miraculous Catch of Fish
recounted in
the fifth chapter of Luke;
- the Winged Man, Lion, Bull and Eagle.
representing the four evangelists;
- the Phoenix with nimbus (halo). This
mythical creature, resurrected from its own ashes, became a symbol of
the resurrected Christ in early Christianity.
- various displays of general Christian symbols such as
the circle (symbolizing perfection or eternity), lambs, the peacock
(symbolizing immortality because of the myth that its flesh did not
decay after death; and—to go
way out on a hermeneutical limb—what I think is a bowel of
pomegranates, the many seeds of which (unified in a single fruit)
symbolized the universal church.
Also,
there is the
mosaic illustrated (above)* in this entry. It juxtaposes
two episodes in the life of
Christ: one, His encounter with the Samaritan
at the well; two, the miraculous
changing of water to
wine at the Wedding at Cana. The first
refers to the fourth
chapter (KJV) of the Gospel of John:
[13] Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever
drinketh of this water
shall thirst again:
[14] But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall
never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a
well of water springing up into everlasting life.
The second reference is to the miraculous changing of water to wine at
the wedding feast at Cana, from the second chapter (KJV) of John:
[1] And the third day there was a marriage in Cana
of Galilee...
[2] And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to
the marriage.
[3] And when they wanted wine...
[7] Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with
water...
[8] And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear
unto the governor of the feast...
[9] ...the ruler of the feast...tasted the water
that was made wine...
[11] This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana...and manifested
forth his glory...
The baptistery and mosaics
have been recently restored. This evokes two conflicting schools of
thought: one, restoration, as far as possbile, to the original
state—that is, recreate the splendid view that
greeted the baptized as they stared up at the monogram of the name
of Christ, itself surrounded by immaculate and detailed symbols of
their faith; two, preserve the current fragmentary state of the mosaics
and keep them from deteriorating further. The restorers have chosen the
second route. Anything else, they say, would be to create a
counterfeit. I have no opinion on this except to note that most
antiquity
could not be viewed at all today if someone had not put at least some
of the "original pieces" back in place. You don't look at the temples
in Paestum, for example, and think, "Gee, too bad they restored these."
However, it is also true that neither those temples, nor the ruins of
Pompeii and Herculaneum look as they did two-thousand years ago. They
have been frozen in a state of well-maintained decay. Works of art, on
the other hand, present a different problem. Michelangelo's art in the
Sistine Chapel was recently restored and is said to look the way it did
when it was created. These mosaics may be yet another problem. I'm glad
I don't have to decide.
-------------------------
My thanks to
Fr. Ilya Gotlinsky for reminding me of this site.
*The photo is a cropped version of a photo credited to Giusy Mennillo.
I have not obtained permission to reproduce it because I have been
unable to contact the copyright holder. I will keep trying and will
glady remedy that
situation if someone provides me with information, or I will remove the
photo upon request.
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