THE GROTTE NUOVE. SOUTH SIDE

Here you enter the new crypt. Just at the entrance there is a representation of the head of St. Andrew, carried on a cloth by two angels, erected to commemorate the acquisition of the head of the Apostle from Constantinople by Pius II. Gregorovius gives a wonderful description of its reception in the seventh volume of his history:

“Rodrigo Borgia, afterwards Alexander VI., covered his palace with the most costly draperies, and transformed the surrounding quarter into a paradise resonant with music. The Pope made a Latin speech to the head, in which he said, ‘So thou comest at last, O most holy head of an Apostle driven from thine abode by the fury of the Turk. Like an exile, thou takest refuge with thy brother, the Prince of the Apostles. This is Alma Roma which thou seest before thee, and which is dedicated to the most precious blood of thy brother in the flesh. The Romans, who are thy brother’s family, greet thee as their uncle and father.’”

on the throne of Benedict XII. in the Chapel of S. M. della Bocciata in the Crypt of St. Peter’s.]

When the head was finally deposited near St. Peter’s tomb, Cardinal Bessarion addressed a discourse to St. Peter, in which he expressed his conviction that the Prince of the Apostles would avenge the outrages his brother had received from the Turks, and that Andrew, as a new protector to Rome, would unite the Kings in a crusade. The head of St. Andrew is now preserved in one of the piers of the dome.

All round here are fifteenth-century sculptures belonging to the tombs of Nicholas V. and Innocent VIII., and the famous altar and ciborium which Innocent erected to receive the head of the Holy Lance with which Our Lord’s side was pierced, when it was sent to him by the Sultan Bajazet. They consist of statues and medallions. The lovely statues of the four doctors of the Latin Church--St. Ambrose, St. Gregory, St. Jerome, and St. Augustine--are said to have belonged to the tomb of Calixtus III. Charming, too, are the fifteenth-century medallions of the Evangelists, which belonged to the ciborium of the Holy Lance.

Just opposite the Chapel of S. Mary of the Women with Child, is the famous inscription of Pope S. Damasus, which gives its name to the principal court of the Vatican. It is the most beautiful inscription in the crypts. It is disappointing to find that this stately epigraph only refers to the drainage, which the saint, with saving common sense, diverted from the tombs to a place where it could be used for a baptistery. S. Damasus lived in the first century of the old basilica.

The fine ancient mosaics on the pier between the entrance to this chapel and the adjoining chapel of S. Maria della Bocciata came from the tomb of poor young Otto II., who had such high hopes of living to see the Millennium, and died a mere boy in 983. The figure of Christ reminds you of the great mosaic Christs of Palermo, Monreale, and Cefalù, especially in the action of the hand. Père Dufresne says that St. Peter’s holding three keys is significant, without doubt typifying the fact that the Sovereign Pontiff exercises authority over the Church, triumphant, militant, and suffering.

The Chapel of S. Maria Pregnantium is the largest chapel in the crypt. Close to its door is a beautiful bas-relief of Our Saviour blessing the Innocents; a fragment of the tomb of Cardinal Eroli, by Giovanni Dalmata, a sculptor of ability who flourished about 1470-1480, concerning whom, like Paolo Romano and Francesco Laurana (who were approximately his contemporaries, and the latter of whom executed busts of conspicuous beauty and European fame), one can practically find no details in works of reference. The group by the Dalmatian is interesting, because the head of Our Lord has the hair raying out like sunbeams, as you have it on the handkerchief of S. Veronica.

Opposite this is a fine inscription of Pope Hormisdas, the Pontiff who reunited the Eastern and Western Churches after they had been separated for thirty-five years. The mosaic angel by Giotto on the same wall is very lovely, but it looks as if it had been restored by Guido Reni or Carlo Dolce: it came from the wall of the nave of Old St. Peter’s. Between it and the window is another fragment of Matteo Pollaiuolo’s screen, which went round the Confessio of Old St. Peter’s; the piece which represents Nero condemning the Apostles formed the paliotto of the High Altar. As a representation of Nero it is worthless. The sculptor tried to make him finicking and comical, as a concession to the religious prejudices of the times. Opposite this is a beautiful inscription of the twelfth century, a panegyric of S. Boniface IV., the Pope who had the satisfaction of extorting from the worthless Emperor, Phocas, a grant of the Pantheon, which after due purification he consecrated as S. Maria ad Martyres, transferring to it thirty waggon-loads of the bones of the martyrs from the Catacombs. From here a low stair leads up into a smaller chapel, which contains some most interesting objects: such as the mosaic portrait of John VII., very like the Ravenna mosaics; possibly also like its subject, because the square nimbus shows that it was executed in his lifetime. John holds a representation of the oratory from which this mosaic came in his hand. This is the oratory which stood on the extreme left of the west front of Old St. Peter’s, and was built in the eighth century in honour of the Virgin. It was also called the Oratory of the SS. Sudarium, and the Oratory of S. Veronica, because the celebrated relic of the Holy Face, which we call S. Veronica’s handkerchief, and the Italians call the Volto Santo, was kept there. It was destroyed in the seventeenth century. Near this is a marble tablet engraved with three prayers for the soul of Gregory III., who died in 741, which were written on marble after his death and placed on his tomb. Opposite to this is a very holy spot, where once reposed in the same tomb S. Leo I., S. Leo II., S. Leo III., and S. Leo IV. The first S. Leo, the Great, stayed the hand of Attila; the third crowned Charlemagne; the fourth was the builder of the Leonine city. They all lie in one of the transepts of the New St. Peter’s, under the altar of St. Mary of the Column. Near this is a twelfth-century picture of the Virgin, which was in the old basilica. The head is charming, but far more important is the painting beside it of the façade, and the portico of the old basilica, and of the Old Vatican.

Separated from the Chapel of S. Maria Pregnantium by a wall is the Chapel of S. Maria della Bocciata. On the right hand, as you enter it, are some lovely arabesque bas-reliefs from the Garden of Nero, which equal in loveliness anything of the kind which has survived from classical times. Who knows if they may not have been preserved as having stood by the spot where St. Peter met his death? Who knows that Mino da Fiesole, who worked so much for Old St. Peter’s, did not draw the inspiration for his delicious bas-reliefs from them? In the vault above them we have frescoes of some of the most precious objects in Old St. Peter’s, such as the shrine of the Holy Lance, erected by Pope Innocent VIII., of which fine fragments remain scattered about his crypt. Its splendour was brief, for the Lance Head, with which tradition said the side of the Saviour was pierced, was only brought to Rome in 1492, the gift of the Sultan, Bajazet II., sent as a diplomatic offering to the Pope, who was very obligingly keeping his brother and rival, Prince Djem, out of Turkey in honourable captivity. The Prince is one of the most notable figures in the frescoes of the Borgia Apartments. There are also pictures of the baldachin which was over the Volto Santo, and the ciborium which contained the shroud that wrapped Our Lord’s body; and some of the most famous mosaics of the old church. Underneath them is a thirteenth-century mosaic which came from the Oratory of John VII. Opposite this is one of the finest statues in the crypt--that of Benedict XII., who died 1342. The style and execution are noble; the sculptor had quite an Egyptian inspiration. It is so majestic, though it is not of full length, that it is worthy of the Pope who founded the Palace of Avignon, which, of all the work of human hands, comes nearest to the rocks of God. Between it and the door is a singularly beautiful monument, a statue of St. Peter seated on a throne designed for Benedict XII., with the lions at his feet which once adorned the tomb of Urban VI. The throne is the most beautiful in Rome. It consists of a sort of triptych of three gables. The centre is occupied by the seat, while in each of the sides is the figure of an angel between two elegant little spiral columns with ribbons of mosaic twined round them. The base is inlaid with porphyry discs and scrolls of the school of the Cosmati. The statue, which is much older than the statue exhibited in the church above for the adoration of the faithful, was once a Roman Consul, but was given a new head with a halo, and a new hand with keys.

wall in St. Peter’s Crypt.]

The Chapel of S. Maria della Bocciata, which contains some of the gems of all the crypts, takes its name from an image of the Virgin which used to stand in the portico, whose face bled when it was struck by pebbles. The two stones, worn into holes, protected by bars underneath it, are by some thought to have been worn by the fall of the blood; but others say by the fingers of the faithful touching the sacred spot. The image now stands at the end of the chapel, which contains such noble monuments. Opposite the entrance is a little chapel dedicated to Our Saviour, called the Salvatorino. On the pier at the entrance of this chapel is the great marble cross which crowned the façade of Old St. Peter’s in the Middle Ages. Almost opposite its entrance is a statue of St. James the Less, which belonged to the magnificent ciborium erected by Sixtus IV. at the back of the High Altar of Old St. Peter’s. The other eleven Apostles are all preserved in the Grotte Nuove. This statue stands just by the entrance into the crypt from St. Veronica’s pier.

It is well to leave these two chapels to the end, because they are _par excellence_ the museums of Old St. Peter’s. And the reason why the crypts are holy ground is because they are all we have of the Old St. Peter’s, which was the Temple of Christianity.