E02854: Wall painting with labelled depictions of Christ and the *Apostles (S00084), probably associated with a prayer on behalf of animals. Found in Caesarea Maritima (Roman province of Palaestina I), close to the presumed St. Paul's chapel. Probably 6th-7th c.

Poorly preserved painting showing Christ among the Apostles, within a rectangular red frame. Dimensions: H. 0.94 m; W. 3.6 m. Thickness of the frame: 0.045 m. At some point the painting was presumably covered by whitewash which later fell off together with the plaster. First recorded in 1980 by the Joint Expedition to Caesarea Maritima. The team, however, had no time to clean and study the painting. A preliminary edition was offered by Tamar Avner in 1999, with the aid of Boris Haimov.

The painting is located on the lower part of the barrel vault, above the west wall of a rectangular room (c. 3 x 4 m) in Vault 9 in Area CC, to the north of the site of the so-called 'chapel of St Paul' within the praetorium of Caesarea Maritima (for a description of this establishment, see: E02853). As the room was apparently open to the street from one side, Tamar Avner tentatively suggested that it could have played the function of a passageway, and not a chapel or other sort of cult place.

In 1980 the upper frame was almost completely preserved. Below it one could see fragmentary heads of thirteen figures with nimbi. The middle and right-hand heads were better preserved. Most of Apostles' faces, however, were almost completely lost and so was the face of Christ (the central figure, with his nimbus decorated with a horizontal red line ending with knobs, identified as a fragmentary Christogram). There was, likewise, almost nothing left of the bodies. The figures of the Apostles were evenly spaced. The diameter of the Apostles' nimbi was c. 0.19-0.20 m, while that of Christ was 0.24 m. One of the figures to the right of Christ could be holding a cross or a cross is painted next to his head. The posture of Christ is not clear. He could be seated on a cushioned stool. It seems that the two Apostles, situated immediately to the right and left of Christ, are sitting on chairs, providing that the identification of lines behind their heads as the upper parts of the backs of chairs is correct. Other Apostles seem to be standing and adoring Christ with the gesture of acclamation: their bodies are lightly turned towards the middle of the picture and they are raising their hands towards Christ.

In 2009 the site was revisited by the editors of the Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae, but by that time the painting must have had significantly deteriorated as they were unsure if they actually saw it: 'There is no report of moving the fresco; perhaps we have seen the very meagre remains still in situ in October 2009' (see CIIP 2, 79).

Inscription:

At the bottom, were remnants of the frame and a fragmentary painted inscription. Avner argued that the inscription had three distinctive parts, separated by lines, and that three different passages could have been written on the wall. However, she did not offer a transcription. A transcription was published by Kenneth Holum and Clayton Lehmann in 2000 in their corpus of the inscriptions of Caesarea, and a different one by Denis Feissel in Bulletin épigraphique in 2002, from Avner's photographs and drawings. The inscription was later republished by Walter Ameling in the new corpus of inscriptions of Caesarea in the CIIP series, using earlier editions and Avner's photographs. Basically, Ameling followed Feissel's transcription:

A: Χρ(ιστός)/'Christ'

B: [- - -]ε ἤλπισάν σ[οι], αὐτὰ σῷζον. [- - - σ]ῶσον τὰ ἄλογα/'[- - -] they put their hope in you, save them! [- - -] save the animals!'

[- - -] ε ἤλπισαν ἐ[π' τ]αῦτα σῷζον. [--]οντα ἄλογα Lehmann & Holum

Text: CIIP 2, no. 1153. Translation: W. Ameling.