The Painting of Knowledge in Thirteenth-Century Rome

The recent discovery of a thirteenth-century mural cycle in the cardinal’s residence at SS. Quattro Coronati in Rome invites a reconsideration of the relationship between art and knowledge in medieval Italy. Covering the walls and vaults of a large hall, the frescoes constitute a large-scale pictorial “encyclopedia” that comprises allegorical representations of thematic groups associated with secular knowledge. This is a largely uncharted category of monumental art in thirteenth-century Rome. My article situates the paintings in their complex historical circumstances marked by the increased cultivation of science at the papal court and the broader cultural phenomenon of late medieval encyclopedism. I offer an analysis of the frescoes, focusing on the ways in which individual groups of images reinforce the larger themes of the iconographic program. The unknown painters at SS. Quattro Coronati brought together diverse bodies of knowledge and, through pictorial strategies of framing and spatial design, created the effect of a unified whole. Through their distinctive scale and format, the murals produce a cumulative viewing experience that operates in its own way as a metaphor for encyclopedism. The painted hall was designed to draw attention to the relationship between vantage point and knowledge as a way of inviting viewers to reflect on the limitations of human knowledge vis-à-vis God’s perfect knowledge. In this way, the SS. Quattro Coronati frescoes offered a sophisticated response to the epistemic changes of the period and asserted a new role for mural painting as a medium for the transmission of scientific concepts and ideas.