Located near St. Peter’s on the west bank of the Tiber, the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere is one of the oldest churches in Rome. The first sanctuary on this site was a house church built in 221-227 CE. It was rebuilt in the 340’s on a much larger scale. The current one (built in the 1100’s) used the plan and foundation from the previous one.
As the name says, the church is for the Virgin Mary. Mary was the guarantee of the human side of Christ and when depicting him, artists had to approach the question, “How do you depict God?” The answer was that you could depict his human side (Mary). This led to the development of certain human characteristics representing God. Thus, the mosaic in the apse of this church celebrates Mary as the queen of heaven, but also as a human. The dilemma of how to depict Christ probably also accounts for why there are, and we saw, so many depictions of Mary with Jesus as her babe in arms. The wax painting here, dating to the 7th or 8th century, was another of these depictions
As the name says, the church is for the Virgin Mary. Mary was the guarantee of the human side of Christ and when depicting him, artists had to approach the question, “How do you depict God?” The answer was that you could depict his human side (Mary). This led to the development of certain human characteristics representing God. Thus, the mosaic in the apse of this church celebrates Mary as the queen of heaven, but also as a human. The dilemma of how to depict Christ probably also accounts for why there are, and we saw, so many depictions of Mary with Jesus as her babe in arms. The wax painting here, dating to the 7th or 8th century, was another of these depictions