The depiction of the Acta Martyrum During the Early Middle Ages : hints from a liminal space, the transept of Santa Prassede in Rome (817-824)

The hagiographical cycles painted in the transept of Santa Prassede, dating in all likelihood from the moment of the foundation of the church by Paschal I (817-824), have been neglected by the academia because of their state of preservation and their apparently marginal location. This paper reconsiders this ensemble considering the transept as a crucial element in a basilica focused on a crypta, where it occupies a liminal place between the space of the clergy and the space of the worshippers. Taking into account this specific location and after having pointed on the diffusion of the hagiographical matter at the basis of the paintings in the early medieval culture, the paper shows the main iconographical strategies adopted to facilitate the apprehension of these narrative cycles. What emerges is an ensemble not less important than the most renowned works of Paschal I, which push to reflect on the status of the wall-painting and especially of the narrative genre for a better understanding of the early medieval art.