Ingo Herklotz
Philipps University of Marburg, Germany
After rediscovery of the so-called catacomb of Priscilla next to the Via Salaria in 1578 Roman catacombs enjoyed attention which they had not enjoyed for many centuries. Scholarly and archaeological examinations of subterranean burial sites, which initially did exist, were soon put aside in favor of hagiographic approaches, which put themselves in service of Counterreformation propaganda: the main stimulus for investigating catacombs was the search for the relics of presumed martyrs. Notwithstanding such an interest, from the 16th to the 18th centuries the iconographic repercussions of the newly discovered subterranean world were limited. It was only in the representations of Saint Filippo Neri (1515 -1595) that the catacombs played a certain role as one of the places associated with his life and his spiritual experiences. The images of Filippo Neri in catacombs reflect contemporary discussions of how to identify the tombs of the martyrs.
During the 19th century scenes from the catacombs acquired new interest for contemporary painting, in particular for the so-called salon painting that displayed a strong inclination for historical subject matter from ancient Rome and the early Christian period. Contemporary conflicts between the Catholic Church and governments of various European states further contributed to glorifying martyrs as models of Christian endurance. The archaeological standard of these paintings, executed by an international group of artists active in Italy, France, Germany, Poland and Russia
is certainly higher than that of 17th- and 18th- century painters. Moreover, these depictions go together with a new interest in catacombs that can be observed in contemporary fiction (Newman’s Fabiola, Anton De Waal’s Valeria, Sienkiewicz’s Quo vadis, and many others), which likewise tends to glorify the early Christian period as a period of Christian heroism and of political resistance.
Some of these books are illustrated with engravings, which vary greatly between scholarly documentation and artistic fantasy.