The power of images and images of power: the replicas of the Lateran Saviour in Central Italy

The image of Christ in the Sancta Sanctorum chapel, called acheropita (not made by human hands) in the Liber Pontificalis, was the most venerated icon of Rome. From the 8th to the 16th century it used to be the protagonist of a procession which took place on the night between the 14 and 15 August; this was attended by a large crowd, who participated with prayers, songs, lights and staging liturgical dramas. It was a powerful icon, Pope Stephen II (752–757) carried it on his shoulders from the Lateran to Santa Maria Maggiore, in order to protect the city from the Lombard king Aistulf. In this type of ceremonies - in Rome as in Costantinopole - the image of Christ takes the place of the portraits of the emperors. At the time of Leo IV (847–855) the icon was also used to drive away a basilisk from a cave near S. Lucia in Selci, symbolizing the expulsion of paganism from the center of the city. Starting from the 12th century the procession assumes a civic character with an increasing role of the city authorities. In parallel it also develops a private worship inside the chapel, after the papal election and on Easter; this involves the acheropita and the pope, almost suggesting an identification between them. From the time of the Gregorian Reform, the icon starts to be reproduced and its replicas spread in Central Italy (especially in Lazio but also in Umbria and in Abruzzo): almost a hundred of them remain, painted between the 12th and the 19th centuries. The aim of this paper is to study the dislocation of these replicas, especially the medieval ones, that had the function of protecting the boundaries of the Patrimonium Petri and reaffirming in this area the papal double power (pontificalis auctoritas and regalis potestas). At the same time they represented a strong element of identity in these towns, where the procession that took place in Rome was replicated to suppress localism and unify the territories around Rome.