“Religious Imagery ca. 600″: San Lorenzo fuori le mura
San Lorenzo fuori le mura belongs to the papacy of Pelagius II, Gregory’s predecessor and under whom he served. It offers the only surviving monument that we can connect, even by one degree of separation, to Gregory. Among non-surviving monuments, we have his restorations to Saint Peter’s as described in his papal life.
San Lorenzo has an even more interesting text, at least in my opinion- his well-known letter to Constantina (4.30, in which he refuses the empress’s request for the head of Paul. Among other tales, Gregory relates how when workers inadvertently opened the tomb of Saint Lawrence, they all died. San Lorenzo, like most mosaics in Rome, has two longer inscriptions. I have not yet found translations and therefore made my own. I have not yet decided whether to post my translations (I have prepared many this semester). The longer inscription describes in detail the process of construction.
San Lorenzo fuori le mura also has nice spoliated building materials, including a capital depicting a trophy flanked by victories.
If you have good details, then you can also discuss the varying size of the tesserae, within single figures and across figures.
The best images of San Lorenzo fuori le mura come from Maria Andaloro, La Pittura medievale a Roma, 312-1431: Atlante, volume 1.
Jaca Books (click “A”, then “Andaloro”, then “Atlante: percorsi visivi…“)
Flickr has good exterior and general interior shots, but only a couple including the mosaic and none suitable for close examination of details.
The site of photographer Bill Storage also has a couple images:
