Conservation, Erasure, and Intervention: Rome’s Ancient Heritage and the History of SS. Cosma e Damiano

Conservation, Erasure, and Intervention: Rome's Ancient Heritage and the History ofSS. Cosma e Damiano GREGOR KALAS T he Roman Forum remained devoid of explicitly Christian monuments until the early sixth century, when the first adaptation of an ancient structure into a church occurred in this part of downtown Rome. The sponsor of the conversion, Pope Felix IV (526530 ), preserved an ancient secular basilica when he made it into the church of SS. Cosma e Damiano, asserting both Christian and papal ideologies into an area that contained some of the city's oldest monuments (Fig. 1).1 To mark the transformation,the pope orderedglimmering mosaic decorations for the preexisting apse (Fig. 2) while he maintained the fourth-century marble incrustations ornamenting the walls of the interior. These now-lost inlaid marbles, shown in an early-modern drawing by Pirro Ligorio, survived well beyond the basilica's Christianization and attest to efforts of Felix IV to conserve late Roman treasures (Fig. 3). This article examines the early medieval foundation of SS. Cosma e Damiano, which retained its ancient Roman architecturalfeatures, and contrasts this with the seventeenth-century erasure of certain walls to accommodate the addition ofchapels on the interior,which masked the ancient appearance of the structure. More recent campaigns to bring the Roman Forum back to its classical appearance indicate that SS. Cosma e Damiano furnishes an historical guide to the significance of maintaining and reusing ancient architecture. Fig 1. Digital reconstruction ofSS. Cosma e Damiano showing the eastern section of the Roman Forum and the Temple of Peace. (Lu Liu, 2004) ARRIS Volume Sixteen 1 GREGOR KALAS Fig. 2. SS. Cosma e Damiano, Rome, apse mosaic. (All illustrations by author, except where noted) Early Medieval Conservation The Roman Forum itself profited from postclassical conservationist policies, but the area endured invasive destruction in the early modern era. During late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, the Forum benefited from preservation campaigns that guaranteed the precinct's continued vitality, even though structures such as the Basilica Aemilia had suffered during the military incursions of the fifth century.2 As late as the year 554, funds were dedicated to the upkeep of public buildings, when documents attest that the imperial treasury provided partial support for architectural preservation in the Roman Forum.3 By contrast, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, interventions in the Forum frequently treated ancient architecture as a resource to be exploited, evidenced in campaigns to appropriate old masonry as building blocks for new structures that masked the historic character ofthe reused fragments.4 The architectural complex in the Forum converted by Felix IV into a church included an apsidal hall that had been united with an entrance rotunda in the fourth century. During the early Middle Ages, one entered the nave of Fig. 3. Pirro Ligorio, Interior and Ground Plan of SS. Cosma e Damiano, c. 1550. {Vat.Lat. 3439 fol 30 r,©Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (Vaticano)} SS. Cosma e Damiano by passing through a late antique rotunda facing the Via Sacra on the east end of the Roman Forum (Fig. 1).5 Originally, the circular vestibule functioned as a pivot between the Forum and the axis of the Temple of Peace, where the apsidal hall was situated (Fig. 4). From the Roman Forum one could thus proceed into the rotunda and through the apsidal hall toward the imperial fora, particularly the precinct belonging to the Temple of Peace. Curiously, the dedication of the church of SS. Cosma e Damiano neither altered the ancient architecture drastically nor disrupted the ancient linkage between the Roman Forum and the Temple ofPeace. The Christianized basilica, whose structural core dates back to the reign of Vespasian in the latefirstcenturyC.E.,6 had previouslyfunctioned during late antiquity as a secular audience hall. Pope Felix IV presumably favored reusing the preexisting basilica, since the hall had already been fitted with an apse in the fourth century, and the structure possessed an architectural form conducive to liturgical use.7 In addition, the sixth-century pope appropriated a civic structure that was devoid ofpolytheistic connotations. Yet the early medieval architectural adaptation had further implications. 2 ARRIS Volume Sixteen GREGOR KALAS Pope Felix IV attentively conserved the ancient...