Coptic Stuccoes at Santa Maria Antiqua

Abstract

This paper deals with a part of the decoration in the presbytery of S. Maria Antiqua in Rome, which has as yet remained in the shadow of the famous early medieval wall-paintings: the stucco-relief frieze that was employed as a running pattern on the eastern and western walls. A Coptic style may be recognized in these stucchi which, as is proposed, were executed by recent immigrants from Egypt in Rome at the time of the church’s foundation in the late 6th century.