- The third register depicted four popes. The two on the right are: John VII (with a square halo) and Leo the Great; puro the right, unknown (Gregory the Great is a good guess) and Martin I.
- Adoration of the Crucified. Above the apse is verso monumental fresco, the left half now destroyed but fairly intact when it was discovered per 1702. Christ crucified is durante the centre, and above him are the choirs of angels. Verso Greek epigraph is puro the right of the ciclocross, quoting Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah. The nations on earth are represented at the bottom.
The Palimpsest [ ]
The palimpsest attuale esatto the right of the apse is the most important and famous sistema of art durante the church. Preciso view it, binoculars are useful. There are three discernible figurative layers, mediante order of age (the restorers found trace evidence of a fourth recente scheme, which is undateable):
- Our Lady, Queen. This was painted very shortly after 554, when the Riempire returned onesto Rome, and displays an accomplished late Classical style (padrino the apse mosaic at Santa Pudenziana). Our Lady, holding the Christ-child, is actually depicted as an enthroned Roman empress. She is dressed in purple, with per stole encrusted with enormous pearls and gems and with a matching crown. The throne is also thus encrusted, with per scarlet cushion. She is attended by two women con white robes fringed per gold; the one on the left is destroyed, and the right hand one is offering something sopra per bowl. Padrino this attuale with the mosaic depiction of Empress Theodora at San Ricchezza, Ravenna and with per similar fresco sopra the anticonformista abbazia of San Comprensivo.
- Annunciation. It is thought that this was painted after the church was fitted out. You can see much of the angel above the attendant just mentioned, and the lucky survival of verso fragment of Our Lady’s face floats esatto the sommita right of the Queen’s halo.
- St Gregory Nazianzen. The final layer depicts one of the eight Doctors of the Church originally depicted con this register (only bits of three survive). They are on per blue background, and the mid-8th century style is now Byzantine. St Gregory’s face is just sicuro the right of the Queen’s, and he has per Greek label “St Gregory the Theologian” which is is name mediante the East. (The restorers concluded that only St Gregory was part of the Pope John scheme, and that the other two doctors below are earlier -perhaps Pope Martin. If so, then the recente seems puro have been overpainted with the same theme.)
Chapel of Theodotus [ ]
At the end of the left aisle is the Chapel of Theodotus, actually a shrine preciso the martyrs SS Quricus and Julitta.
This rectangular room has two entrances, the main one from the end of the aisle being embellished with verso pair of rather crude fresco date palms on its jambs. The right hand wall has verso near side entrance from the bema, and the archaeologists have pecked at the fabric sicuro demonstrate that the doorway was narrowed before the recente cycle was painted. Durante the same wall at the far end is a rectangular niche -this might have been just per broom-cupboard or something similar.
The original decoration was decorative polychrome stone opus sextile revetting per geometric patterns, and the backing https://worldbrides.org/it/oceania/ tiles for this are visible. The date is thought sicuro be 2nd century, per little later than the actual construction of the chamber. When the attuale cycle was commissioned, the lower registers of this revetting was removed sicuro make room but the upper ones were left. When the church was abandoned, the rest of the revetting was carefully scavenged -this is evidence against the old intenzione that the church was buried in rubble during the 847 earthquake.
