some more sketches to her notebook and then
followed Fossore as he ushered them out of the crypt towards an uneven,
door-sized opening at the end of a narrow corridor that veered off the main
passageway. The uniformity of the
fake loculi in the tunnel and the large jagged hole in the wall scarcely
prepared her for what she now saw.
“ Dio , ” she gasped in
disbelief over and over again as they entered the disputed hypogeum , a
crypt unlike any she had ever seen or scarcely imagined. The light from the
oxy-lamps bounced back and forth on the richly frescoed surface of walls whose
colors were vivid and bright, untouched by the passage of time and glowing with
a burnished intensity that was nearly alive. Mirror-like sections of gold leaf had
been applied between the intricate wall paintings, dazzling Nicola's eyes and
shocking her into a stunned silence.
Astounded by the incredible beauty of the room — whose frescoes
were so complex she couldn't imagine how she would ever be able to analyze them — Nicola stood
spellbound, unable to move or speak. It was as if the crypt were somehow pulsating with an energy all its
own, with some sort of inscrutable power that had ensnared her, that would not
release her from its grasp until she had revealed its secrets and laid bare the
mysteries of its existence.
Never before had she felt this thrill of imminent discovery,
this sense of barely containable excitement — this certainty that she was about to find
herself at the center of a drama whose final act was yet to unfold.
Pulling herself together, she turned to Bruno, who was
looking around the crypt in open-mouthed astonishment, and said, “ I don't know about you,
Bruno, but I want to stay here. Signor Fossore can go home. We can find our way out later on our own. ”
Chapter Nine
Bruno and Nicola had now been in the new hypogeum for
nearly two hours. Fossore had left
them there without argument, handing them a well-marked map of the tunnel
network. The promised photographic
equipment was there, together with a table full of flat scrapers, brushes,
whiskbrooms, tweezers, latex gloves, and various antiscaling agents and
solvents. Several collapsible
stools and emergency lighting stood nearby.
Recovering from their initial shock at the opulence of the
crypt, they were soon able to differentiate between distinct sections of the
walls, where artistic theme and color varied with the elements depicted in the
frescoes. Unlike the burial
chambers elsewhere in the Vigna Randanini, this hypogeum had used every
available inch of space for its decorations, including the ceiling, which had
an apparently random pattern of gold stars set against a deep cerulean sky.
Closer examination of the walls revealed precious artifacts — some
large, some small — that were cemented into the spaces between a group of
sealed loculi , all but camouflaged by the intricate frescoes. Two large, unusually ornate sarcophagi
occupied adjacent niches, surrounded by wall paintings whose intense hues
distracted the eye from the stone coffins themselves.
For most of the two hours, Nicola and Bruno had simply
walked slowly around the chamber, marveling at what they saw and taking copious
notes on the general implications of the iconography and its possible
significance. Only after a second
visit would they attempt to begin piecing together some actual working theories
about its provenance.
Many of the elements in the crypt were typical of the usual
mix of Christian and pagan motifs found in other catacombs in Rome and its
environs. These included doves,
peacocks, and the legendary phoenix, along with palm trees interspersed with
crowns, as well as anchors symbolizing man's ultimate arrival at the port of
the afterlife following the dark and uncertain journey of death.
On one of the walls there was a large painting of a golden
fish, or ichthus in Greek, forming an acrostic that translated as “
followed Fossore as he ushered them out of the crypt towards an uneven,
door-sized opening at the end of a narrow corridor that veered off the main
passageway. The uniformity of the
fake loculi in the tunnel and the large jagged hole in the wall scarcely
prepared her for what she now saw.
“ Dio , ” she gasped in
disbelief over and over again as they entered the disputed hypogeum , a
crypt unlike any she had ever seen or scarcely imagined. The light from the
oxy-lamps bounced back and forth on the richly frescoed surface of walls whose
colors were vivid and bright, untouched by the passage of time and glowing with
a burnished intensity that was nearly alive. Mirror-like sections of gold leaf had
been applied between the intricate wall paintings, dazzling Nicola's eyes and
shocking her into a stunned silence.
Astounded by the incredible beauty of the room — whose frescoes
were so complex she couldn't imagine how she would ever be able to analyze them — Nicola stood
spellbound, unable to move or speak. It was as if the crypt were somehow pulsating with an energy all its
own, with some sort of inscrutable power that had ensnared her, that would not
release her from its grasp until she had revealed its secrets and laid bare the
mysteries of its existence.
Never before had she felt this thrill of imminent discovery,
this sense of barely containable excitement — this certainty that she was about to find
herself at the center of a drama whose final act was yet to unfold.
Pulling herself together, she turned to Bruno, who was
looking around the crypt in open-mouthed astonishment, and said, “ I don't know about you,
Bruno, but I want to stay here. Signor Fossore can go home. We can find our way out later on our own. ”
Chapter Nine
Bruno and Nicola had now been in the new hypogeum for
nearly two hours. Fossore had left
them there without argument, handing them a well-marked map of the tunnel
network. The promised photographic
equipment was there, together with a table full of flat scrapers, brushes,
whiskbrooms, tweezers, latex gloves, and various antiscaling agents and
solvents. Several collapsible
stools and emergency lighting stood nearby.
Recovering from their initial shock at the opulence of the
crypt, they were soon able to differentiate between distinct sections of the
walls, where artistic theme and color varied with the elements depicted in the
frescoes. Unlike the burial
chambers elsewhere in the Vigna Randanini, this hypogeum had used every
available inch of space for its decorations, including the ceiling, which had
an apparently random pattern of gold stars set against a deep cerulean sky.
Closer examination of the walls revealed precious artifacts — some
large, some small — that were cemented into the spaces between a group of
sealed loculi , all but camouflaged by the intricate frescoes. Two large, unusually ornate sarcophagi
occupied adjacent niches, surrounded by wall paintings whose intense hues
distracted the eye from the stone coffins themselves.
For most of the two hours, Nicola and Bruno had simply
walked slowly around the chamber, marveling at what they saw and taking copious
notes on the general implications of the iconography and its possible
significance. Only after a second
visit would they attempt to begin piecing together some actual working theories
about its provenance.
Many of the elements in the crypt were typical of the usual
mix of Christian and pagan motifs found in other catacombs in Rome and its
environs. These included doves,
peacocks, and the legendary phoenix, along with palm trees interspersed with
crowns, as well as anchors symbolizing man's ultimate arrival at the port of
the afterlife following the dark and uncertain journey of death.
On one of the walls there was a large painting of a golden
fish, or ichthus in Greek, forming an acrostic that translated as “
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