The Door Panels of Santa Sabina

The Church of Santa Sabina (chiesa di S. Sabina) on the Aventine Hill in Rome is famous for its cypress doors, which may date to the early 5th century when the church was built. One panel contains a scene that is thought by some to be the first depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus. All but one of the other panels depict scenes from the Old and New Testaments, although some have minor departures from the related story in scriptures. The doors are the subject of papers and books by Wiegand (1900), Dewald (1915), Soper (1938), Morey (1942), Kantorowicz (1944) and Delbrueck (1949, 1952). These authors reached widely varying conclusions about the meanings and origins of some of the scenes. I’ve attempted to add a couple of cents worth of new look to their work.

To add to confusion about the origin and meaning of the door panels, the doors has been heavily restored and reconstructed. Some of the original panels are missing, and the order of those that remain has been altered. Delbrueck concluded that the doors were originally made for a different doorway, and were of Greco-Mesopotamian origin, noting a strong similarity to carvings on a first century temple in Palmyra. Kantorowicz  judged them to be of Italo-Gallic origin, as did Soper and Wiegand. Delbrueck noted that some of the clothing shown in the scenes is incorrect for the character wearing it. He also argued that clothing cannot be used to identify the location where the door carvings were made, because the clothing portrayed – while wrong for the scene – was still common to many different parts of the empire.

At least two distinct artistic styles are present, suggesting that more than one set of artists may have worked on the panels. Most of the New Testament scenes reflect eastern artistic trends, while most of the Old Testament scenes are executed in the Hellenistic style. Some scenes contain elements of both styles. If different artists were at work, it is possible that the panels could differ greatly in age. I found no record of an attempt to carbon-date the wood of the panels. An early date for most of the panels seems reasonable, based on the selection of biblical scenes and the details of the images. That doesn’t rule out the possibility of a later artist reproducing an earlier scene to replace a worn panel, and then altering specific details of the scene.

One of the panels is thought to be among the first known depictions of  the crucifixion of Jesus, though there are problems with the obvious interpretation of the scene. For example, the figures’ arms in the image are not bearing any load. I suggest a slightly different explanation for this peculiar crucifixion scene, dealing with intentional ambiguity between the then-popular depictions of Jesus as orant and the then-uncommon but emerging imagery of crucifixion.

I also throw a few cents into the interpretation of the unsolved mysteries of two  two enigmatic panels investigated in detail by Kantorowicz. One shows three figures at the bottom, gazing upward, past the sun, moon and five stars (the known planets), at Christ in a circle with alpha and omega symbols. The figures hold an object that defies interpretation, leaving the intent of the entire scene in question. Another panel appears to depict an imagined event,  neither historical nor scriptural – something like what it might have been like had the emperor visited the church.

Click here for my take on the doors of Santa Sabina. I’ve just updated the text, having been politely scolded by a reader for inaccurate statements on the ambiguity of the Koine term stauros in the 2nd-century. All better now I hope.