Porta San Paolo
Title
Subject
Description
Just northeast to the Pyramid of Gaius Cestuis, Porta San Paolo now serves as the entrance into the Museo della Via Ostiense. However, entry through the Porta San Paolo brings one to a very different setting--back in the Middle Ages. As an important gate along the Aurelian Walls, this porta sat on the Via Ostiense, one of the major highways used to get into medieval Rome. The Museo now inside the gatehouse is dedicated to this roadway and its history. The porta itself was built during the first construction period of the Aurelian Walls from 309-312. During 402 and 403, when the walls were reconstructed, Porta San Paolo lost one of its original archways and its towers were made taller. This is the building we see now. According to medieval guidebooks to Rome, Porta San Paolo took many names, including Porta Ostiense and Porta Trigemina.
Porta San Paolo’s significance goes beyond Rome. This is demonstrated in its use in Christian imagery in other places. One such image, painted in the 1300s by Jacopo di Cione of Florence, uses the Porta San Paolo as a geographic reference in his fresco retelling a traditional story regarding the martyrdoms of Peter and Paul. According to tradition, St. Peter and St. Paul were martyred on the same day in different parts of Rome. However, before being led to their sites of death, the two Apostles said good-bye to each other somewhere along the Via Ostiense. In his painting, Jacopo di Cione places Peter and Paul, surrounded by Roman soldiers, underneath the Porta San Paolo as they part ways. Porta San Paolo as it’s depicted here is quite large, taking up about three-fourths of the frame. Jacopo also paints the tower with its top, a cylindrical structure with two small slit-like windows and a cylindrical pyramid-shaped roof. This could be how the tower looked during the medieval period following the second construction phase of the Aurelian Walls.
The inclusion of the Porta here is crucial in revealing how medieval beliefs shaped the way traditional stories were told and how Roman features played a part in those stories. By including the Porta, Jacopo di Cione is demonstrating the centricity of Rome in Christian stories. In this way, medieval Porta San Paolo becomes multifunctional, serving not only as a gate and defensive fort but also as a method of promoting a Roman narrative.
Abstract
Creator
Source
Finch, Margaret. “Petrine Landmarks in Two Predella Panels by Jacopo di Cione.” Artibus et Historiae 12 (1991): 67-82.
Hart, Vaughan and Peter Hicks, trans. Palladio’s Rome. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Krautheimer, Richard. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.
Nichols, Francis Morgan, trans. and ed. The Marvels of Rome: Mirabilia Urbis Romae. New York: Italica Press, 1986.
Identifier
Coverage
Spatial Coverage
Description
Just northeast to the Pyramid of Gaius Cestuis, Porta San Paolo now serves as the entrance into the Museo della Via Ostiense. However, entry through the Porta San Paolo brings one to a very different setting--back in the Middle Ages. As an important gate along the Aurelian Walls, this porta sat on the Via Ostiense, one of the major highways used to get into medieval Rome. The Museo now inside the gatehouse is dedicated to this roadway and its history. The porta itself was built during the first construction period of the Aurelian Walls from 309-312. During 402 and 403, when the walls were reconstructed, Porta San Paolo lost one of its original archways and its towers were made taller. This is the building we see now. According to medieval guidebooks to Rome, Porta San Paolo took many names, including Porta Ostiense and Porta Trigemina.
Porta San Paolo’s significance goes beyond Rome. This is demonstrated in its use in Christian imagery in other places. One such image, painted in the 1300s by Jacopo di Cione of Florence, uses the Porta San Paolo as a geographic reference in his fresco retelling a traditional story regarding the martyrdoms of Peter and Paul. According to tradition, St. Peter and St. Paul were martyred on the same day in different parts of Rome. However, before being led to their sites of death, the two Apostles said good-bye to each other somewhere along the Via Ostiense. In his painting, Jacopo di Cione places Peter and Paul, surrounded by Roman soldiers, underneath the Porta San Paolo as they part ways. Porta San Paolo as it’s depicted here is quite large, taking up about three-fourths of the frame. Jacopo also paints the tower with its top, a cylindrical structure with two small slit-like windows and a cylindrical pyramid-shaped roof. This could be how the tower looked during the medieval period following the second construction phase of the Aurelian Walls.
The inclusion of the Porta here is crucial in revealing how medieval beliefs shaped the way traditional stories were told and how Roman features played a part in those stories. By including the Porta, Jacopo di Cione is demonstrating the centricity of Rome in Christian stories. In this way, medieval Porta San Paolo becomes multifunctional, serving not only as a gate and defensive fort but also as a method of promoting a Roman narrative.
Creator
Madison McBride (2016)Coverage
1300sSource
Finch, Margaret. “Petrine Landmarks in Two Predella Panels by Jacopo di Cione.” Artibus et Historiae 12 (1991): 67-82.
Hart, Vaughan and Peter Hicks, trans. Palladio’s Rome. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Krautheimer, Richard. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.
Nichols, Francis Morgan, trans. and ed. The Marvels of Rome: Mirabilia Urbis Romae. New York: Italica Press, 1986.