![]() For Allen Brent, the charioteer is unmistakably Christ, who has been intentionally modelled on the sun god. ![]() Some even see the vines covering the walls of the tomb as representative of Christ as the True Vine (John 15:1-17), rather than as the vines of Dionysus (e.g., Beckwith, Early Christian and Byzantine Art, p. 19). Nonetheless, the overwhelming opinion sees the mausoleum as Christian. Such themes, Hijmans argues, are common in Roman funerary art (“Sol,” p. 575-576). Hijmans understands the tomb to be entirely pagan, with all of the imagery together representing the cosmos, with the sea, land, and the heavens depicted this explains why the mosaic of the charioteer, which for Hijmans is Sol, is on the ceiling. In some version of their myths, Hijmans points out, Hercules and Perseus are swallowed by the monster they are attempting to rescue Hesione and Andromeda from respectively, before killing it from within (“Sol,” p. 571). He argues that the fisherman and the shepherd could easily be pagan, and looks to the Greek myth of the ketos, the sea monster which devoured maidens. Steven Hijmans sees the mosaic as purely representing Sol, and suggests that the so-called Christian identity of the other images should be questioned. This has come to be the view of a strong majority, who posit that the figure can be imagined as the new “ Sol Invictus, Sol Salutis, Sol Iustitiae,” with the popular pagan image of the sun god in his chariot, or an emperor at his apotheosis, adapted to represent the risen Christ, whose worldwide dominion is implied through his holding the globe (Beckwith, Early Christian and Byzantine Art, p. 19). This has led many scholars to argue that it is actually Christ depicted in the style of Sol, to portray Jesus as the Sun of Justice or the New Light (this is the view, for instance, of Martin Wallraff, Christus Verus Sol). The charioteer follows the iconography of the Roman sun God, Sol, which was particularly popular during the period that the tomb’s artwork is dated to (see, for example, the numismatic depictions of Sol which are roughly contemporaneous to the present mosaic, linked to below, which similarly show him holding a globe, and/or riding a chariot, with the sun’s rays extending from his head). The sea creature, of course, was presumed to be that which swallowed Jonah. Matthew 4:19 has Jesus teach Andrew and Peter to become “fishers of men,” and John 10:11 has Jesus identify as the Good Shepherd (see also the parable of the lost sheep in Matthew 18:10-14 and Luke 15:1-8). In the 1940s the images in the tomb were identified as Christian. ![]() An inscription over the doorway, now lost, recorded that the tomb was built for Julius Tarpeianus and his family. These excavations uncovered sections of a necropolis from the imperial period, including the tomb of interest to us here (although this tomb was actually already accessed through a hole in 1574), known as Mausoleum M or more commonly the tomb of the Julii, originally built for the Julian family in the late-second or early-third century CE. During the 1940s Pope Pius XI had the catacombs excavated in order to find the location of Peter the Apostle’s remains, so that he himself could be buried closely to him. It can be seen from where tesserae have fallen from the mosaic that the plaster underneath was coloured in order to aid the mosaicist in following the design.īeneath St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City lies the Vatican Necropolis, which houses several tombs which were once part of an open air cemetery. The mosaic features a gold background with twisting green vines surrounding the charioteer. The right hand of the figure is missing, but possibly was “raised in an act of benediction” (John Beckwith, Early Christian and Byzantine Art, p. 19). Radiating from the head of the figure are rays, which extend upwards and sideways. The figure is dressed in a tunic with a cloak floating out behind him. However, of central concern here is the central mosaic, set on an octagonal panel in the dome of the basilica, which depicts a figure riding in the chariot of the sun, drawn by white horses (originally four, but just two survive owing to a hole made in 1574 to access the tomb), and holding a blue globe in his left hand. Among the mausolea of the Vatican lies the famous so-called “tomb of the Julii.” The tomb contains images of a fisherman (north wall), a shepherd (west wall), and of two figures in a boat with a third individual being swallowed by a sea creature (east wall).
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