Description

In 1193, Jean de Matha, a French priest, had a vision of Christ grasping two men by the arm: one white and the other black. This vision inspired him to create the Trinitarian order, whose goal it was to free Christian captives from their Muslim captors. Pope Innocent III lent his support to the order, and soon a headquarters and hospital had been established at San Tommaso in Formis on the Caelian Hill. In 1210, shortly before de Matha’s death, this mosaic of his vision was created over the gate of the church. Historians disagree on what is depicted in the mosaic—some believe that Christ is freeing both the white and black figures from captivity, while others think that differences in the portrayal of the white person versus the black person indicate otherwise. The presence of what appears to be a whip in the black person’s hand indicates that he could be the captor, while the unbroken chain around his ankles suggests that he could even a pagan captive being exchanged for a Christian one. In any case, the mosaic represented the mission of the order to free Christian captives, and the presence of the black person shows a worldly awareness that is not obvious in much of the art of the medieval period.

Creator

Lindsay Brandt (2017)

Coverage

1200s

Source

Brentano, Robert. Rome Before Avignon: A Social History of Thirteenth-Century Rome. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2006.

Epstein, Steven A. Speaking of Slavery: Color, Ethnicity, and Human Bondage in Italy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001.