Mausoleo di Santa Costanza

Mausoleum of Saint Costanza The mausoleum of Saint Costanza was erected along the Via Nomentana in Rome near the monumental complex of Saint Agnes Outside the Walls, which today appears almost completely destroyed. Who was Constantina? She was the eldest daughter of Emperor Constantine, and received the title of Augusta from her father. Many described her as ambitious, seductive, and bloodthirsty. She fell seriously ill and, almost on her deathbed, legend has it that she was healed through the intercession of Saint Agnes, to whom Constantina herself was a great devotee. After her recovery, she built the Basilica of Saint Agnes to house the saint's remains and, later, around 350, she also built her own monumental tomb on the south side of the basilica. The mausoleum was dedicated to Saint Costanza after Constantina was consecrated as a saint with that name. The circular building is of considerable size: the dome has a diameter of 22 meters. This typology is in continuity with pagan art (for example, the hall of the Pantheon or the nymphaeums of the imperial villas), as is all the interior mosaic decoration. For example, the depiction of the grape harvest led to the erroneous belief that this was a temple dedicated to the god Bacchus. The mausoleum was soon transformed into a baptistery for the adjacent church of Santa Agnese, and in the 13th century it was transformed into a church dedicated to Santa Costanza when Constantina was venerated as a saint. On this occasion, a narthex was also built, ending with semicircular apses, at the entrance. The brick construction appears very simple and bare on the outside, while on the inside, the thick perimeter walls of the outer cylinder are carved with sixteen niches. Toward the center, we find a division into twelve sections marked by radial twin composite columns of smooth granite, mostly reclaimed (from other Roman buildings). Topped by an entablature supporting the twelve semicircular arches, the cylindrical drum rests on top. The twelve arched windows illuminate the central space, which ends with a large hemispherical dome. Light floods the central space, which brightens while the ambulatory, by contrast, appears dim. The space between the exterior wall and the twin columns is the circular ambulatory, covered by an annular vault (a semi-cylindrical barrel vault resting on the curved wall), interrupted only by the cross vault opposite the entrance. Beneath this vault is a copy of the red porphyry sarcophagus that contained the remains of Saint Costanza (the original is in the Capitoline Museums). The mausoleum was once surrounded by a colonnaded portico, which no longer exists. The mosaic that once covered the interior of the dome was also destroyed in 1600 due to its poor condition and replaced by a fresco. The mosaics The vault of the ambulatory preserves the oldest mosaics from the early Christian era. The light background and naturalistic themes (plants, animals) are more closely related to Roman floor mosaics than to those typical of early Christian art. depicted on the walls or vaults. On the other hand, these mosaics date back to the beginning of Christianity (remember that Christians were free to practice their faith and build their first churches after the Edict of Milan signed by Constantine, Constantina's father, in 313), and their refinement derives from imperial patronage, still torn between paganism and Christianity. The vault features geometric motifs with circles, diamonds, and interlacing patterns depicting birds, flowers, plants, and small figures; other sections feature more free-form representations, such as the grape harvest scene or the cart carrying bunches of vines, a seemingly pagan scene that, when interpreted in a Christian light, represents the sacrifice of Jesus, his shed blood. Nadia Gaus website: acomearte.it