The Basilica Santa Emilia
Emily Barstow
Intro to Art of Rome
October 22, 2013
Built in 436 A.D., during the fifth century, Santa Emilia is a magnificent Christian
basilica located in Trastevere, close to the Tiber River in order to be seen by people
travelling on the river. Saint Emilia was a wonderful saint who had the incredible ability to
have ten children. Unfortunately however, she experienced a devastating loss of one of her
daughters when she was too young. Due to Saint Emilia’s religious belief, she turned to God
to help her through the difficult time. When Pope Sixtus III, the Pope of the time, heard of
Saint Emilia’s devastation, he took it upon himself to build a church dedicated to her. That
being said, the church was built on the pope’s own initiative, instead of that of imperial
authorities since the Roman Empire had recently collapsed.
Similar to Santa Maria Maggiore, Santa Emilia was built during the reign of Sixtus III.
However, the legend of the church says that after the death of her child, Saint Emilia saw a
vision of the Virgin Mary asking her to build the church where the snow would fall in June.
Saint Emilia’s daughter who had past away loved the snow, but her birthday was in June.
When the snow fell in June, as the Pope had promised, he took it upon himself to make sure
that Santa Emilia was built immediately. Today, there is a celebration in June, which
includes the throwing of petals from the top of the church in order to celebrate and
remember the death of Saint Emilia’s daughter. This legend is similar to that of Santa Maria
Maggiore. Despite the fact that Santa Emilia was originally built in the fifth century, many of
the church’s features were restored in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Santa Emilia is
a good example of a church that is beautifully decorated while also being a place of
worship, which was popular throughout the Middle Ages.
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Santa Emilia is situated and constructed in a way that allows plenty of light to
stream into the church, a feature that is characteristic of early churches. Additionally, the
entrance is in the front, which is typical of classical medieval churches. The church has a
large nave with twenty-four columns, complete with Corinthian capitols, creating two
aisles on either side of the nave. The floor of the church has been restored into a
cosmatesque floor, which consists of a glass mosaic that is used in combination with
marble. This floor is also exhibited in Santa Maria Maggiore and is an amazing feature of
Santa Emilia. The front of the church consists of an apse, an apsidal arch, a transept, and a
triumphal arch. Additionally, there is a chapel inside the church, used for private devotion.
Alongside the church, there is a cloister, or a quadrangular courtyard. The restorations that
took place in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries only added to the design of the church,
creating an extension of the beautiful church that already existed.
The main portal of Santa Emilia is very similar to that of Santa Sabina. The doors are
the originals, dating from the fifth century and are made out of cypress wood. Additionally,
there are scenes of both the Old and New Testament carved into the wood. The door
portrays the oldest known representation of Christ Crucified, which is an iconographic
motif that becomes widespread in the middle ages. Above the entrance, inside the church,
there is a long inscription in capital letters that commemorates the construction of the
church to Pope Sixtus III and the dedication of the church to Saint Emilia.
Inside the main portal of Santa Emilia is the façade, which was restored in the
thirteenth century. Entering the church, the frescoes by Cavallini are on the inside of the
façade display brilliant works of art. Fortunately, the façade was large enough to include
the addition of Cavallini’s work. Cavallini was one of the greatest artists of the time, which
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made Santa Emilia a symbol of the new direction in Roman art. These frescoes are similar
to those in Santa Cecilia, illustrating the scene of The Last Judgment. The sacrifice of Christ
is an essential part of the scene of The Last Judgment. The characters in this scene are
modeled by variation of light and color, however the use of line is left out. A new
development of the time was the use of light and dark to create a contrast. This method was
known as chiaroscuro. This technique was used to create the sculptural and physical
features that are created by the figures and their expressions.
The nave of Santa Emilia is particularly high in order to let optimal light into the
church. The high nave is similar to the nave of Santa Sabina, however generally, the
architecture that allows an ample amount of light into the church is characteristic of early
medieval churches. The nave includes the Old Testament on the right side and the New
Testament on the left. The images that are part of the New Testament include, but are not
limited to, the cruxification and baptism of Christ. The Biblical figures in these mosaics are
portrayed wearing togas, similar to the mosaics in the nave of Santa Maria Maggiore. The
function of these images are in order to create a context of eternity for those prayers of the
faithful that choose to pray in Santa Emilia.
The architecture of the church is created in a way that makes the images so they are
read in a particular way, which was common of medieval churches. The images are read
starting from the apse at the front of the church and ending at the façade at the entrance of
the church. Additionally, the images are read from right to left. This being said, the creation
of the images were carefully constructed in a way that makes sense to those reading them.
The triumphal arch, which separates the nave from the transept, is similar to the
triumphal arch in Santa Maria Maggiore. The infancy of Christ appears on the triumphal
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arch instead of on the left side of the nave with the rest of the New Testament. The arch
also includes a scene of Annunciation, as the angel comes down from heaven to meet the
Virgin Mary, and the scene of Adoration of the Magi in which Christ is seated on a throne as
an emperor instead of in his mother’s arms. This shows the freedom of composition that is
depicted on the triumphal arch. Additionally, the isolated figures are separated and almost
never interact with each other, which makes the composition appear to be on a
superhuman plane.
On the other side of the triumphal arch is the transept of Santa Emilia, which was
restored in the twelfth century and is similar to that of Santa Maria in Trastevere. The
transept wall features images of the cross and the seven candelabra. Furthermore, the
symbols of the Evangelists are displayed on the walls of the transept. These include the
angel, lion, ox, and eagle. These images depict the four writers of the four gospels, Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John respectively. The transept makes the design of the church appear like
a cross.
The apse of Santa Emilia, at the front of the church is the most sacred part. A
constructional point of the apse is the windows that were built above the apse and apsidal
arch that are arranged in order to bring optimal light into the church. The apse was
restored with scenes from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The center icon is that of
the Virgin Mary and Christ besides each other. It was common in ancient medieval
churches to have an icon of the Virgin or Christ, or the two of them together. Additionally,
as also appears in Santa Maria in Trastevere, there are five episodes featuring the Virgin
Mary that were added to the apse in the thirteenth century. These mosaics appear in the
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semicircular space of the apse and include the annunciation, the nativity of the Virgin, the
death of the Virgin, the adoption of the Magi, and the presentation of Christ to the temple.
The apsidal arch is complete with images from the Book of Revelation from St. John
the Evangelist. These images can also be seen on the apsidal arch of Santa Maria Maggiore
and Santa Pudentiana. Additionally, as in Santa Sabina, there is a magnificent strip of
polychrome marble inlays that runs above the arches that shows Roman military emblems
with crosses on top.
While Santa Emilia was used for public devotion, there is also a chapel inside that is
used for private devotion. The chapel is lined with pews so that those who wish to pray in
the chapel can do so. Similarly to Santa Maria Maggiore, there is an icon of the Virgin Mary
that is preserved in the chapel. The Virgin Mary was seen as very important because she
delivered Christ, which meant that human kind was saved.
Alongside Santa Emilia was a quadrangular courtyard known as a cloister. The
cloister was built in the thirteenth century, and was similar to that of Santa Sabina. The
cloister served as a place for monks to come from the monastery next to the church in
order to spend time outside and socialize. The cloisters that date back to the twelfth
century such as those of Santa Cecilia, were more simple in form compared to that of Santa
Emilia’s. Porticoes surrounded the cloister, with water in the middle. Additionally, the
cloister acted as a sort of link to the rooms around the sides. Coming from the Cosmatesque
style of the period, the cloister is complete with coupled columns including colored and
gilded tesserae.
The Middle Ages in Rome was an important time for Christians to be able to spread
their faith and create unity after being freed by Constantine in 313. The best way to go
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forward with this was to build churches, linking the Christian faith with magnificent pieces
of art. Santa Emilia is an example of a church that not only gave individuals the ability to
pray, but also created a space that told a story. Santa Emilia helped in the spreading and
unification of the Christian faith in Medieval Rome.
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