Pluteus with astylar cross

The well-preserved, integral marble pluteus is decorated with a large central astylar Greek cross pattée with scrolled extremities characterized by a webbed carving. In the upper half of the slab, two palmettes—characterized by a flared trunk that narrows upward with a double-ringed spindle whorl motif and ends in a lanceolate point—extend from the intersection of the arms of the cross along diverging diagonal directions. The palmette leaves, which rise from the trunk at two symmetrical lateral caulicles, are bisected and hooked, gradually sloping in size toward the top. The lower half of the slab, which includes the cross shaft, is occupied by a knotted double quincunx motif comprising of a two-lined wickerwork motif ribbon, with asymmetrically arranged angular loops, filled in above by two rotating rosettes with a central bud and below by recessed rosettes with incised round, lanceolate leaves with raised bud.
The arrangement of palmettes on axes diverging from the intersection of the arms of the cross is remarkably reminiscent, including its association with a cross with profiled scrolls, of the arch abutment fragment from San Clemente (Bonanni 1992, fig. 1; later Barsanti, Flaminio, Guiglia 2015, fig. 133), dated to the first half of the ninth century. The pattern seems to originate from the older version of the cross with divergent lilies from the pluteus of Sant’Ippolito at Isola Sacra (described in Pani Ermini 1975; Episcopo 1982), held at the Museo Pio Cristiano in Rome and, according to scholars, commissioned by Leo III (817–824) (Macchiarella 1976, fig. 280; Paroli 2001), with which we can associate the fragment from the lapidary collection of the Roman Forum, now in the National Roman Museum Crypta Balbi (Kautzsch 1939, fig. 8; now Flaminio 2018, fig. 5), dated to the first quarter of the ninth century.
For the palmettes, a symbol of regeneration (De Santis 2000), which here, with their subtle hooked curvature, present an almost unprecedented redaction in the context of early medieval Roman sculpture, the closest reference is the slab from Santa Maria in Trastevere (Kautzsch 1939, fig. 67), chronologically placed between the late-eighth and early-ninth centuries (Bull-Simonsen Einaudi 2001). Outside Rome, in the same period, we have examples of hooked palmettes carved on the ciborium arch of San Pietro in Sylvis in Bagnacavallo (Kautzsch 1939, fig. 22) and the Lombard commissioned pluteus from San Concordio in Lucca (Ducci 2014, fig. 14), dated to between the late-eighth and early-ninth centuries (Augenti 2000). These pieces, like the Trasteverine pluteus, present simplified cursive forms that have nothing in common with the clarity of layout and intaglio precision of our slab. Moreover, there are also sculptural similarities from the Lombardy area with the Lauterach slab (Roth-Rubi 2015, fig. 6.69b) from ninth-century Carolingian Rhaetia. Again, these are indirect correspondences that presuppose shared iconographic repertoires and motifs used in interlace sculpture, and stone carvers also shared a common training or culture, in other words elements that, in the first half of the ninth century, come together to define a common Carolingian language (Lomartire 2013; Roth-Rubi 2020).
As for the filled-in quincunx, derived from an early Christian matrix, we need to go back to the “carpet” motif of one of the column bases in the Sacello di San Zenone, near Santa Prassede (Pani Ermini 1974, fig. 94; Ballardini 2019), now dated to the papacy of Paschal I (Ballardini 2020). In the same period, rotating rosettes associated with profiled, recessed, and inscribed rosettes within a circle can also be seen in Santa Maria in Domnica (Melucco Vaccaro 1974, fig. 132; Ranucci 2003, figs. 3 and 6), although those most similar to ours can be found in fragmentary pluteus slabs from Sant’Agata dei Goti (Pani Ermini 1974, fig. 7) and Sant’Andrea Cata Barbara (Pani Ermini 1974, fig. 10), both referable to Leo’s papacy, again, however, according to a formalized design whose direct model is the Paschal I sculptural production in Santa Prassede (Pani Ermini 1974, figs. 59 and 64).
The same robust stylization of phytomorphic motifs and the use of bands associated with the two-lined wickerwork motif ribbon remain distinctive features of production during the papacy of Paschal I (817-824), as can be seen in the pluteus fragments from San Giovanni a Porta Latina (Melucco Vaccaro 1974, figs. 31-34), which also have a flat-strip border.
In our case, the balance of the clean, orderly composition, given the subtle asymmetries, the firm and precise ductus, and the confident mastery of the execution technique have resulted in a valuable piece, ascribable to the production of the workshops of Paschal I (817-824) or Eugene II (824-827) considering the continuity that distinguishes their work. Indeed, symmetry of composition and sharp definition are the hallmarks of Paschalian form (Ballardini 2020).
A later date would be implied by a documentary note by Camillo Pistrucci (Memoirs, no. 10), who recalls the verso of the slab, not visible today because it is walled up, decorated with a “ribbon” ornament and compares it to a pluteus in the Lapidarium of Palazzo Venezia (inv. 3285), recognizing it as part of a group of eight pieces (Latini 2008, cards 19–26) referring to the Schola cantorum of the church of San Marco in Rome. The two plutei had been found during demolition work on the Palazzetto in an area believed to have been used in ancient times as the cemetery of the ancient diaconia of San Marco, later used as cover slabs for two shaft tombs, one of which can be dated according to epigraphic evidence to the fourteenth century. Hence Pistrucci’s hypothesis that they might have constituted the slabs of the presbytery enclosure of San Marco, because of which we should perhaps assume a date that coincides with the reconstruction of the church by Gregory IV (827–844) (Cecchelli 1995; Pensabene 2015). However, there are no concrete elements for a certain dating of our slab, especially since among the pieces of the group ideally reconstructed by Pistrucci the measurements, iconographic choices, and formal treatment of the plates do not seem to coincide.

Valentina Brancone

Good. Chipped in several places along the edge.

1999 (cleaning).

Unknown, possibly from the ancient diaconia of San Marco. Found during excavation in the Palazzetto area for the demolition carried out in the area in preparation for the relocation of the Palazzetto Venezia (1910–1914).

Rome, Archivio del Museo del Palazzo di Venezia, Memorie dell’architetto Camillo Pistrucci. Demolizione e ricostruzione del Giardino di San Marco o Palazzetto di Venezia, ed edifici annessi, restauro del grande palazzo, torre, loggia papale della chiesa di San Marco e scoperte avvenute (1910–1914), page 5 and note 10;
Rome, Archivio del Museo del Palazzo di Venezia, Bollettario, tome IV (handwritten annotation by Federico Hermanin, June 30, 1921).
 

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