Article,
Symbolism and Purpose in an Early Christian Martyr Chapel: The Case of San Vittore in Ciel d'Oro, Milan
Gesta, 34 (2): 91--101 (January 1995)ArticleType: research-article / Full publication date: 1995 / Copyright © 1995 International Center of Medieval Art.
DOI: 10.2307/767281
Abstract
The Early Christian chapel of San Vittore in Ciel d'Oro at Sant'Ambrogio, Milan, is effectively the sole survivor of a host of decorated martyr shrines built in the century after the peace of the Church. Its mosaic programme is analyzed in detail: the surviving mosaics refer almost exclusively to St. Victor, his place within the Milanese church, and the triumphant victory of his martyr's death. His resurrection is symbolised within the vaulted space of the chapel by the creation of a microcosm of heaven and earth, centered on the axis between his grave in the crypt and his image above it in the vault of the 'golden sky'. A secondary use of the chapel as the burial place of Satyrus, brother of St. Ambrose, is documented in Ambrose's works and confirmed by archaeology. San Vittore in Ciel d'Oro is therefore a key monument in our understanding of the twin cults of the martyrs and of the dead in the earliest years of organised Christianity.
