Fragment of two-faced pluteus with sapling

Surviving in two distinct fragments, the marble fragments from the Palazzo Venezia Lapidarium, decorated on both sides with stylized saplings and interlaced knots (inv. 13604 and 13605), must be connected back to the same artifact, most likely a presbytery enclosure pluteus. The artifacts have the same decorative pattern and are qualitatively similar.
In this more complete fragment, a sapling with podded leaves branching off from a thin, double-etched trunk, clamped between two cauliculi and sloping toward the top from which sprout two heart-shaped leaves, one etched with arrowheads and the other with spherical fruits: this is the iconic sign of the dactyliphera palm, a figurative component of the Traditio Legis and a symbol of resurrection and paradise (Frugoni 1990; Spera 2000). The sapling, what’s more, configures a cypress tree, which, along with the cedar, symbolizes the arbor vitae, or Tree of Life, in the heavenly Jerusalem (Frugoni 1990).
The arbor vitae, in our version, stands out against a smooth, luminous background, reconnecting, by means of a wave-shaped base of two-lined wicker ribbon, to a Solomonic column with a waterleaf capital on the left side and a small pillar decorated with an interlaced motif on the right. This might well be the longitudinal arm of a cross, if our fragment is to be compared with a formally congruent pluteus now at Santa Sabina (Trinci Cecchelli 1976, fig. 235). On the other hand, the guilloche motif, of eastern origins and common in Lombardy decorative motifs on various supports, was a characteristic feature of liturgical furnishings in the Roman sphere from the age of Leo III (795–816) (Martorelli and Pettinelli 2022).
The iconographic theme overshadowed in the fragment is that of the two-sided aedicule with crosses flanked by palmettes or saplings representing the arbor vitae (Romanini 1975; Roperti 2007; Casartelli Novelli 2019), a theme from the early Christian period, renewed by its adoption at the presbyterial enclosure of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican by Gregory III (731–741) (Ballardini 2008, fig. 25) and part of the Carolingian tradition since the late eighth century with complex semantic value—alluding to the gates of Paradise and the crucifixion, among others (Roth-Rubi 2015)—and associated with artifacts such as well heads, tomb slabs, antependia, and various pieces of ecclesiastical furnishings.
These iconographic motifs and the artifacts’ formal treatment makes it plausible that the two fragments of a two-sided pluteus belong to the same presbyterial enclosure, which probably included the iconography of the cross under an archway, perhaps with a two-sided aedicule (like the double-twisted Solomonic column of the second fragment, inv. 13605) as well as a woven decoration well known from the Carolingian period that consists of knots of two-lined wicker ribbon with ogival eyelets intersected by diagonal lines, within a saw-tooth frame.
In particular, the design of the hypothetically reconstructed interlaced ornament in the form of knotted circles forming Solomon’s knots (Latini 2003, fig. 25) will have to be corrected on the basis of comparison with slab fragments from Santa Maria in Domnica (Melucco Vaccaro 1974, figs. 133-134; Ranucci 2003, figs. 7-8), San Giovanni a Porta Latina (Melucco Vaccaro 1974, fig. 35a), or again Santa Maria in Trastevere (Bull-Simonsen Einaudi 2001, fig. 8), since in the upper right half of the second fragment (inv. 13605) the presence of a knot is clearly perceived, producing a skein of circles with knotted ogival eyelets intersected by diagonal lines.
The different distribution of the ornamentation on the two sides of the pluteus has led some to assume that the side with the interlaced decoration, visible in the lower part of the slab, leaned against a raised presbytery (Latini 2003). It is possible, however, that, as in Santa Maria in Trastevere (Bull-Simonsen 2001), the pluteus leaned against kneeling benches, used by the faithful to receive the Eucharist directly from the hands of the presbyters, in keeping with the Carolingian rite.
As for the possible dating of the two-sided pluteus, if, considering the pervasiveness of the motif, it is difficult to date the interlaced decoration to any period except for a generic first half of the ninth century, the aedicule decoration, which is similar to that of the plutei of Santa Sabina (Trinci Cecchelli 1976, in particular fig. 235; Gianandrea 2011), would suggest it could be dated to the first year of the pontificate of Eugene II (824–827) (Betti 2017; Roth-Rubi 2015). A similar sapling, a common enough emblem in the Carolingian artistic language (Lomartire 2013; Roth-Rubi 2020), datable to the first decades of the ninth century, can also be found on an antependium or pluteus slab from San Colombano in Bobbio (Destefanis 2008, fig. 2).
Our fragment is extraordinarily sophisticated, as can be evinced by the clever carving and surface polishing and the use of a precious proconnesian marble, and can be compared to mature artifacts such as those produced in the Santa Prassede workshop on the Esquiline, commissioned by Paschal I (817–824). Moreover, the consistency of artifacts produced by workers of the Roman workshops between the two pontificates of Paschal I (817–824) and Eugene II (824–827) has been repeatedly reaffirmed (Melucco Vaccaro 1999; Melucco Vaccaro 2001; Ballardini 2008, Roth-Rubi 2015). 

Valentina Brancone

Fair. Roughly hewn and chiseled.

2002–2003 (restoration directed by Maria Giulia Barberini and Maria Selene Sconci, undertaken on the occasion of the founding of the Museo di Palazzo Venezia Lapidarium).

Unknown. Found during excavations for the Palazzetto, as part of demolition carried out in the area for the relocation of the Palazzetto di Venezia (1910–1914).

Melucco Vaccaro Alessandra, La Diocesi di Roma, t. III, La II regione ecclesiastica, Corpus della scultura altomedievale, VII, Spoleto 1974;
Romanini Angiola Maria, Tradizione e «mutazioni» nella cultura figurativa precarolingia, in La cultura antica nell’Occidente latino dal VII all’XI secolo, XXII Settimana di studio del CISAM, Spoleto 1975, pp. 759-789;
Trinci Cecchelli Margherita, La Diocesi di Roma, t. IV, La I regione ecclesiastica, Corpus della scultura altomedievale, VII, Spoleto 1976;
Frugoni Chiara, Alberi (in Paradiso voluptatis), in L’ambiente vegetale nell’Alto Medioevo. Settimane di studio del Centro italiano di studi sull’Alto Medioevo (30 marzo-5 aprile 1989), XXXVII, vol. II, Spoleto 1990, pp. 724-762;
Melucco Vaccaro Alessandra, Le officine marmorarie romane nei secoli VII-IX. Tradizione e apporti, in Cadei Antonio et al. (a cura di), Arte d’Occidente. Temi e metodi. Studi in onore di Angiola Maria Romanini, I, Roma 1999, pp. 299-308;
Spera Lucrezia, s.v. Traditio legis et clavium, in Bisconti Fabrizio (a cura di), Temi di iconografia paleocristiana, Città del Vaticano 2000, pp. 288-293;
Bull-Simonsen Einaudi Karin, L’arredo liturgico medievale in Santa Maria in Trastevere, in de Blaauw Sible (a cura di), Arredi di culto e disposizioni liturgiche a Roma da Costantino a Sisto IV. Atti del Colloquio internazionale (Roma, 3-4 dicembre 1999), Roma 2001, pp. 81-99;
Melucco Vaccaro Alessandra, Le botteghe dei lapicidi: dalla lettura stilistica all’analisi delle tecniche di produzione, in Roma nell’Alto Medioevo. Settimane di studio del Centro italiano di studi sull’Alto Medioevo (27 aprile-1 maggio 2000), XLVIII, vol. I, Spoleto 2001, pp. 393-420;
Latini Massimo, Sculture altomedievali inedite del Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia in Roma, in «Rivista dell’Istituto Nazionale d’Archeologia e Storia dell’Arte», 57, 2003, pp. 113-152;
Ranucci Cristina, Elementi di arredo liturgico altomedievale in Santa Maria in Dominca. Rilettura complessiva dei materiali, in Englen Alia (a cura di), Caelius I. Santa Maria in Domnica, San Tommaso in Formis e il Clivus Scauri, Roma 2003, pp. 218-227;
Roperti Antonella, Note sulla scultura, in Bonacasa Carra Rosa Maria, Vitale Emma (a cura di), La cristianizzazione in Italia tra Tardoantico ed Altomedioevo. Atti del IX Congresso Nazionale di Archeologia cristiana (Agrigento, 20-25 novembre 2004), vol. I, Palermo 2007, pp. 411-420;
Ballardini Antonella, Scultura per l’arredo liturgico nella Roma di Pasquale I: tra modelli paleocristiani e Flechtwerk, in Quintavalle Arturo Carlo (a cura di), Medioevo: arte e storia, X Convegno internazionale di studi (Pavia, 18-22 settembre 2007), Milano-Parma 2008, pp. 225-246;
Latini Massimo, in Barberini Maria Giulia (a cura di), Tracce di pietra. La collezione dei marmi di Palazzo Venezia, Roma 2008, pp. 175-194, schede 1-29;
Destefanis Eleonora, La Diocesi di Piacenza e il monastero di Bobbio, Corpus della scultura altomedievale, XVIII, Spoleto 2008;
Gianandrea Manuela, Note sul perduto arredo liturgico di Santa Sabina all’Aventino nel corso del Medioevo, in «Rivista dell’Istituto Nazionale d’Archeologia e Storia dell’Arte», s. III, 66, 2011, pp. 151-164;
Lomartire Saverio, Architettura e decorazione dell’altomedioevo in Italia Settentrionale - Una svolta sotto Carlo Magno?, in Wandel und Konstanz zwischen Bodensee und Lombardei zur Zeit Karls des Grossen. Acta Müstair, Kloster St. Johann, 3, Zürich 2013, pp. 345-372;
Roth-Rubi Katrin (in collaborazione con Sennhauser Rudolph), Die frühe Marmorskulptur aus dem Kloster St. Johann in Müstair, Ostfildern 2015;
Betti Fabio, L’arredo liturgico della Basilica di Santa Sabina al tempo di papa Eugenio II: dalla scoperta ai restauri storici (1894, 1918, 1936), in «Arte medievale», 7, 2017, pp. 31-52;
Casartelli Novelli Silvana, Decoro a "Korbboden" (fondo di canestro): una nota sul «vizio di noi occidentali, della spiegazione mimetica delle immagini, anche in presenza di disegni astratti», in «Arte medievale», 9, 2019, pp. 9-58;
Roth-Rubi Katrin, La scultura nella Rezia, il suo legame con l’Italia e il Rinascimento carolingio, in Ammirati Serena, Ballardini Antonella, Bordi Giulia (a cura di), Grata più delle stelle. Pasquale I (817-824) e la Roma del suo tempo, vol. 2, Roma 2020, pp. 111-127;
Martorelli Rossana, Pettinelli Emanuela, La Diocesi di Albano laziale, Corpus della scultura altomedievale XXI, Spoleto 2022.