Medieval frescoes

Rome contains many hidden treasures, but the most remarkable of the lot is concealed on the Caelian Hill, above the Colosseum, in the medieval monastery of Santi Quattro Coronati. It’s a cycle of frescoes dating from around 1250. It is extremely rare for painting from this period to survive anywhere, but it’s even rarer in Rome, where the rebuilding of the city by the Counter-Reformation popes destroyed almost all medieval painting.

The paintings are in a vast vaulted gothic hall, the walls of which — about 800 square metres of them — were originally completely covered in frescoes. About half the original paintings remain: an earthquake, and the construction of additional windows, have destroyed the rest. But what survives is so impressive that it has been called ‘the medieval Sistine Chapel’ — which it’s not: it’s not that amazing. But it is wonderful, so the hyperbole is pardonable.

Almost every other surviving medieval fresco cycle depicts scenes from the Old and New Testament, or at least episodes from the life of a saint, reflecting the critical role of painting in providing religious instruction for the illiterate.