The
Baptistery of San Giovanni
in Fonte
Paleo-Christianity (2)
 The oldest
cathedral in Naples is said to be Santa Restituta (see that
link), now incorporated as a paleo-Christian
“church within a church” in the present-day Naples cathedral—or Duomo. Within Santa Restituta, however,
is a baptistery described by literature about the site
as the oldest one in Western Christendom. The
construction of S. Restituta and baptistery goes back
to the time of the emperor Constantine the Great
(280-337 AD); this is attested to by a passage from
the life of Pope Silvester I in the Liber
Pontificalis Ecclesiae Romanae: “[…]eodem
tempore fecit Costantinus Augustus basilicam in
civitatem Neapolim" (…at that time, Costantinus
Augustus had a basilica built in the city of
Naples). Reliable archaeology places the construction
in the fourth century with the first modifications
done in the fifth century.
Once inside the main cathedral, the entrance
to Santa Restituta is on the left, past the fourth
chapel; you enter and are in the back of this church
within a church, facing the apse. On the left of the
apse is a stairway down to Roman and Greek remnants of
ancient Neapolis beneath the Duomo; to the right is a
doorway into the baptistery, itself. The entire
baptistery consists of two chambers of unequal size
separated by columns. The larger of the two is the one
of interest and is the first one you enter from the
main body of S. Restituta. It is a square chamber 7.60
meters (25 feet) on a side. Starting well above
eye-level, the walls then create an octagonal base
that culminates in a dome directly above the baptismal
font itself, in this case a sunken bath-sized tub
large enough for the rites of immersion.
Because of their age, the mosaics within the
baptistery are of considerable interest to
Christians—indeed, to any historian of religion—and there is a
considerable body of literature on them. The mosaics
start at the center of the dome, above the font, with
a large Christological monogram;
that is, a stylized rendering of the first two Greek
letters of the name of Christ—X and P (the sounds ch and r). This monogram
of the name of Christ is called the Chrismon. In this
rendition, it is flanked by the Greek letters alpha and omega, the first
and last letters of the Greek alphabet, a reference to
the book of Revelation, chapter 1, verse 11 (KJV): "I
am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last." That is
then surrounded by other mosaics that flare out and
down to the octagonal base of the dome. Among the
other mosaics, most of which are fragmentary:
- the
Traditio
Legis, meaning "handing down the law.” It
is a common iconographic type in early Christian
art. The image is based on
the Roman formula of the traditio legis
or the Emperor as the lawgiver. A common English
rendering is "Christ the lawgiver." Christ is
normally depicted with the apostles Peter or Paul or
both. In the version in the San Giovanni in fonte
baptistery, Christ is handing Peter a scroll upon
which is written Dominus legem dat
(God gives the law);
- depiction of the
Miraculous Catch of
Fish recounted in the fifth chapter of
Luke;
- the Winged Man, Lion, Bull
and Eagle. representing the four
evangelists;
- the Phoenix with nimbus
(halo). This mythical creature, resurrected from its
own ashes, became a symbol of the resurrected Christ
in early Christianity.
- various displays
of general
Christian symbols such as the circle,
symbolizing perfection or eternity, lambs, the
peacock (symbolizing immortality because of the myth
that its flesh did not decay after death) and—to go way out on a
hermeneutic limb—what I think is a bowel of pomegranates,
the many seeds of which (unified in a single fruit)
symbolized the universal church.
Also,
there
is the mosaic illustrated (above)* in this entry. It
juxtaposes two episodes in the life of Christ: one,
His encounter with the Samaritan at the well; two, the miraculous changing of
water to wine at the Wedding at Cana. The
first refers to the fourth chapter (KJV) of the Gospel
of John:
[13] Jesus answered and said unto her,
Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
[14] But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall
give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall
give him shall be in him a well of water springing up
into everlasting life.
The second reference is to the miraculous changing of
water to wine at the wedding feast at Cana, from the
second chapter (KJV) of John:
[1] And the third day there was a
marriage in Cana of Galilee...
[2] And both Jesus was called, and his disciples,
to the marriage.
[3] And when they wanted wine...
[7] Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots
with water...
[8] And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and
bear unto the governor of the feast...
[9] ...the ruler of the feast...tasted the water
that was made wine...
[11] This beginning of miracles did Jesus in
Cana...and manifested forth his glory...
The baptistery and
mosaics have been recently restored. This
evokes two conflicting schools of thought:
one, restoration, as far as possible, to the
original state—that is, recreate the splendid
view that greeted the baptized as they stared
up at the monogram of the name of Christ,
itself surrounded by immaculate and detailed
symbols of their faith; two, preserve the
current fragmentary state of the mosaics and
keep them from deteriorating further. The
restorers have chosen the second route.
Anything else, they say, would be to create a
counterfeit. I have no opinion on this except
to note that most antiquity could not be
viewed at all today if someone had not put at
least some of the "original pieces" back in
place. You don't look at the temples in
Paestum, for example, and think, "Gee, too bad
they restored these." However, it is also true
that neither those temples, nor the ruins of
Pompeii and Herculaneum look as they did
two-thousand years ago. They have been frozen
in a state of well-maintained decay. Works of
art, on the other hand, present a different
problem. Michelangelo's art in the Sistine
Chapel was recently restored and is said to
look the way it did when it was created. These
mosaics may be yet another problem. I'm glad I
don't have to decide.
-------------------------
My thanks to
Fr. Ilya Gotlinsky for reminding me of this
site.
*The photo is a cropped version of a photo credited
to Giusy Mennillo. I have not obtained permission to
reproduce it because I have been unable to contact
the copyright holder. I will keep trying and will
gladly remedy that situation if someone provides me
with information, or I will remove the photo upon
request.
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