STATUE OF ST. PETER.
(Vol. vi., p. 604.; Vol. vii., pp. 96. 143.)
B. H. C. asks for the authority on which is based the statement, that this statue was undoubtedly cast for a St. Peter, and cast in the time of St. Leo the Great (440-461). As the subject involves three questions, I will answer each separately.
1. Was this statue cast for a St. Peter, or is it an ancient statue that had been found in the Tiber; or the ancient statue of Jupiter Capitolinus? That it must have been cast for a St. Peter will be readily allowed, after a careful examination, by any one at all accustomed to compare Pagan and Christian statues. The left hand holding the keys and the right hand raised in benediction, are unmistakeable evidences of the personage represented.
2. What authority is there for believing it to have been cast in the pontificate of St. Leo? The authority is, first, a constant and very ancient tradition to that effect; secondly, a tradition that this same statue belonged to the ancient church of St. Peter's; and, thirdly, the almost unanimous belief in this tradition amongst the antiquaries and archæologists—local and at a distance, deceased and living.
This tradition is mentioned by most writers on the Basilica of St. Peter's:
"A destra evoi, in somma venerazione tenata, una statua in bronzo dell' apostolo S. Pietro, simulacro formato, secondo la pia tradizione, a tempi di S. Leone I. detto il grande," &c.—Melchiorri, p. 181., ed. 1840.
"On the right hand is a statue, held in very great veneration, of bronze, of the Apostle St. Peter: a figure cast, according to the pious tradition, in the time of St. Leo I., named the Great."
Tradition also asserts, that the statue belonged to the old church of St. Peter's:
"The seated bronze statue of St. Peter, which belonged to the ancient church, is said to have been cast in the time of Leo the Great."—Rome, Ancient and Modern, by J. Donovan, D.D., vol. i. p. 314.
There may now be seen, in what was part of old St. Peter's, and is now called the "Grotte Vecchie," where the old flooring still remains—the old base of the bronze figure of St. Peter. It is
kept in the aisle to the left, as you enter the Grotte Vecchie; and was the pedestal of the statue till it was removed from the crypt by Paul V., as Melchiorri informs us. The old base was left in situ, and a new one made, which is the chair of white marble, with the whole surface wrought in arabesque bas-relief, upon a pedestal of light coloured alabaster, with a central tablet of granite, called "granito verde."
3. Was this statue cast from the metal of the Capitoline Jove? Melchiorri almost favours the opinion that it was; but the evidence of Martial, already quoted, seems fatal to this supposition. It occurs to me that the idea of this statue being a Jupiter converted, either by melting down or partial alteration, may have arisen from confounding this statue with another statue of St. Peter, now kept in the crypt of the church under the dome, and in the chapel of the Madonna della Bocciata or del Portico. This is also a seated statue of St. Peter, and stood in the atrium of the ancient basilica. It seems to have been a Pagan figure converted:—
"There is reason to believe that this statue of St. Peter had been originally erected to some Gentile; and that the head, arms, and hands were changed in order to metamorphose it into a St. Peter. In the old church it was usual to vest it pontifically on the feast of St. Peter, as is now the case with the bronze statue above. The Isaurian iconoclast threatened St. Gregory II. with the demolition of this statue: but the impotent menace cost him the duchy of Rome, and placed the temporal power in the hands of the Popes."—Rome, Ancient and Modern, vol. i. p. 574.
Possibly enough, the fact of this figure of St. Peter having been converted, may have led to the idea that it was the other and better known statue. It may be well to add, that in St. Peter's there are forty metal statues, in addition to one hundred and five in marble, one hundred and sixty-one in travertine, and ninety in stucco.
Ceyrep.