The Archivolt Sculpture at Sessa Aurunca

* This article was completed while I was a Junior Fellow at the Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies. I am also indebted to the Kress Foundation, Vassar College and Johns Hopkins University for financial support enabling me to study in Rome and southern Italy. I have benefited from many hours of fruitful discussion with Penelope Mayo of Johns Hopkins University; her pertinent suggestions are too numerous to acknowledge individually. A. J. Parker of University College, Dublin, has generously provided information on the Lentini capital.

Abstract

The medieval Cathedral of Sessa Aurunca (Fig. 1),¹ approximately forty miles northwest of Naples, is dedicated to both St. Peter and the Virgin.² The church was consecrated in 1113,³ although the project was far from completion. Ensuing years saw the construction of the ambo and the paschal candelabrum,⁴ as well as the addition of the porch and its archivolt sculpture. Much has been written about the ambo in the Cathedral and its place in Campanian sculpture,⁵ but little attention has been paid to the sculpture appearing on the center archivolt of the portico.⁶