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The ''Navicella'' (literally "little ship") of Old Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome, was a large and famous mosaic that occupied a large part of the wall above the entrance arcade, facing the main facade of the basilica across the courtyard, attributed to Giotto di Bondone around 1305–1313. It depicted the version from the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 14:24–32) of Christ walking on the water, the only one of the three gospel accounts where Saint Peter is summoned to join him.〔Accounts of the miracle appear in three Gospels: Matthew 14:22–33, Mark 6:45–52 and John 6:16–21.〕 It was almost entirely destroyed during the construction of the new Saint Peter's Basilica in the 17th century, but fragments were preserved from the sides of the composition, and what is effectively a new work, incorporating some original fragments, was restored to a position at the centre of the portico of the new building in 1675.〔"St Peter's"; Lubbock, 158; Tomei, 31; Nicholls, 162; (Present image ), from Bridgeman Art Library〕 The mosaic, designed to be seen from a distance, was extremely large. A full-scale copy in oil, commissioned by the Vatican from Francesco Berretta in 1628, after much of the work had already been lost round the edges, measures .〔(WGA )〕 The full mosaic was probably about , with an inscription in Latin verse running below the image.〔Calvesi, 34; Tomei, 30〕 ==Description== The mosaic was commissioned by Cardinal Jacopo Stefaneschi, whose donor portrait was to the right of Christ's feet; he was in charge of Rome after Pope Clement V and the Curia left the city in March 1309 at the beginning of the period of the Avignon Papacy.〔Papacy, 7; Paoletti & Radke, 65〕 The commission was connected with the Holy Year of 1300, and used to be dated closer to that but is now usually regarded as having been produced after a visit by Giotto to Rome in about 1310, in which he is presumed to have created a cartoon for specialist mosaic-workers to follow. The mosaic probably replaced a Late Antique one in the same location, but nothing is known about this.〔White, 332; Tomei, 30〕 According to Stefaneschi's obituary of 1347, the work cost 2,200 florins.〔Tomei, 30〕 The earliest references to the work as by Giotto are in a Vatican necrology entry for Cardinal Stefaneschi recording his death in 1343, and then the Latin chronicle of Giotto's home city Florence written in the late 14th century by Filippo Villani.〔Murray, 77〕 It was rectangular, and positioned so that those leaving the basilica saw it across the courtyard outside the church, and passed under it if they left by the main route.〔Calvesi, 34; (Later print of the original location )〕 A figure of a man fishing on the shore to the left was thought to be a self-portrait of Giotto, as Vasari's ''Life'' records. The composition was dominated by the fishing boat with its large sail, which represented a metaphor of the "Ship of the Church", whose "captain" on earth was Saint Peter and his successors as Pope.〔St Peter's〕 It was commissioned at a very difficult time for the Papacy, who were unable even to control the gangsterish nobility of Rome, and had therefore left the city, but the image promised that both church and Papacy were, with the help of Christ, "unsinkable".〔Calvesi, 36; Paoletti & Radke, 65〕 Of the eleven figures still in the boat, it has been suggested that the one holding the tiller is (anachronistically in terms of the Gospels) Saint Paul.〔Nicholls, 164, reporting Köhren-Jansen, 1993〕 In the sky, two almost naked classical style "wind god" figures blow through horns or funnels, one from each side, below pairs of haloed male figures. Giotto would have produced drawings for specialist mosaic workers to recreate on the wall; whether he had any further involvement as the work was created is unknown. The subject is depicted elsewhere in medieval art of the period, and later works like frescos in the "Spanish Chapel" of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, and in the Brancacci Chapel by Masaccio (or perhaps his colleague Masolino), and one of the bronze relief panels on Ghiberti's north doors of the Florence Baptistery.〔Lubbock, 158–160〕 It was also used on Papal coins and medals, though usually with Peter in the boat, often as the only figure.〔Nicholls, 163; (Examples from www.coinarchives.com )〕 It was the only modern (post-classical) work described in Alberti's ''De Pictura''.〔Alpers, 199; Lubbock, 158〕 Such a large depiction of a maritime scene was unprecedented in marine art, at least since classical times. The arcade across the courtyard and its mosaic was at first unaffected by the protracted and complicated rebuilding of the main basilica, but in the 17th century the mosaic underwent a complicated series of four moves and restorations or remodellings in 1610, 1618, 1629 and 1674/75 which finally took it to its present size, condition and location above the main door inside the portico of the new church.〔See Kleinhenz 749, Capresi 36, Tomei, 31, though none give a coherent account of the process.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Navicella (mosaic)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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