Rediscovering Early Medieval Santa Maria in Trastevere. A Fresco with St Agatha Recontextualized

The article advances a novel proposal for the early medieval origins of a painting, now privately held, from Rome’s Santa Maria in Trastevere that shows a bust of Saint Agatha. During the nineteenth-century restorations of the basilica, commissioned by Pope Pius ix and carried out by architect Virginio Vespignani, “una imagine di s. Agata a fresco” came to light under the medieval level of the building dated to the reign of Pope Innocent ii (r. 1130–1143): this image of Saint Agatha would be precisely the painting. Analysis of a series of unpublished documents indicative of certain moments in the life of the painting supports this identification and leads to an art historical reinterpretation of St Maria in Trastevere in the early Middle Ages.