The Capocci Tabernacle in S. Maria Maggiore

The decade between 1250 and 1260 is for a variety of reasons, mainly political and financial, a bleak period in Roman art. The tomb of cardinal Fieschi and some other Cosmatesque work survives in S. Lorenzo fuori le mura, the former in a gravely damaged state. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss a monument of greater significance for Roman mediaeval art than either of these. The monument is precisely dated and significant portions of it survive. Ignorance of its original aspect has denied it all but the most summary attention in even the most specialized monographs. Before the reconstructions of the eighteenth century, two tabernacles stood in the apse of S. Maria Maggiore. Both were probably dismantled during Ferdinando Fuga's remodelling of the nave of the basilica. Only that to the right of the apse, generally termed the Tabernacolo delle Reliquie is our concern here. A certain amount is known about its history. It was erected in 1256 by Giovanni Giacomo Capocci and his wife Vinia, and this fact was recorded in an inscription. Capocci and his wife were represented on a small mosaic panel on the side of the tabernacle. After the dismantling of the tabernacle this panel was subsequently removed to the small church of S. Michele at Vico in Lazio, where it still remains in a chapel to the left of the choir (Pl. XXXIV). The four porphyry columns which supported the tabernacle were transferred to the Cappella del SS. Crocifisso in S. Maria Maggiore.