Imago Pietatis of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme

We end this set of three Byzantine Man of Sorrows with the fantastically interesting mosaic panel in the Santa Croce in Gerusalemme church in Rome. It is the latest image in the group and was famously declared to be the earliest; it is perhaps Italian in origin, yet it is distinctly Byzantine. Here, Christ’s head is almost resting on his right shoulder, much like the miniature on folio 167v of the Karahissar gospels. This is a half-length portrait of Christ, which allows for the display of more wounds than in the images discussed earlier. His eyes are closed and his arms are crossed before him. In fact, were it not for the blood flowing downward and the Cross behind him, one might think that Christ was depicted on his back in a tomb.

There is much scholarly debate as to the Santa Croce Man of Sorrows’ origins. Gertrud Schiller claims that this is a thirteenth century icon and a copy of a previous, Byzantine image [1]. Moreover, Schiller states that it is the “source of the western tradition” of the Man of Sorrows, as the Santa Croce church was an important stop on many pilgrimages to Rome [2]. On the other hand, Hans Belting argues that the image was produced in Constantinople at the start of the fourteenth century and moved to Italy around 1380 [3]. And yet, around 1400 a myth was started that Pope Gregory commissioned this mosaic panel in the sixth century making it the first Man of Sorrows icon [4]. Regardless of its exact origins, this Man of Sorrows illustrates two important points. First, the Man of Sorrows iconography moved from east to west, with the Italian peninsula as a likely entrance point for the image’s transit from Byzantium to the rest of Europe. Second, if the Italian peninsula was the first place that the Man of Sorrows reached in the West, then pilgrimages likely played a vital role in spreading the image throughout Europe. For these reasons, we visit the Italian Man of Sorrows images next.

1. Gertrud Schiller, The Passion of Jesus Christ, vol. 2, Iconography of Christian Art, trans. Janet Seligman (London: Lund Humphries, 1971), 199.

2. Schiller, Passion of Jesus Christ, 199.

3. Hans Belting, The Image and Its Public in the Middle Ages, trans. Mark Bartusis and Raymond Meyer (New Rochelle: Aristide D. Caratzas, 1990), 36-38.

4. Schiller, Passion of Jesus Christ, 200.