Images: Wikimedia Commons (detail)
Clavis number: ECMA 102
Other descriptors: none
Location: Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, Rome
Category: doors
Related literature: Acts of Andrew, Acts of Bartholomew, Acts of John, Acts of Paul, Acts of Peter, Acts of Philip, Acts of Thomas, Martyrdom of Mark or related literature (perhaps via a menologion).
Featured characters and locations: Alexandria, Andrew (apostle), Bartholomew (apostle), Herod Agrippa, India, James (son of Zebedee), John (son of Zebedee), Mark (evangelist), Matthew (apostle), Nero, Patras, Paul (apostle), Peter (apostle), Philip (apostle), Rome, Simon (the Canaanite/Zealot), Thomas (apostle).
1. DESCRIPTION
Material: bronze
Size: 3.46 × 5.06 m.
Description: the doors feature 54 panels with scenes from the Life of Christ arranged according to feasts of the Byzantine liturgical year, images of the prophets, and diptychs of the apostles: one iconographic and the other a depiction of their martyrdom. A fire in 1823 damaged the doors; many panels were saved and the rest reconstructed based on drawings (including Seroux d’Agincourt 1825; see also reproductions in 
Bevilacqua 2005). The order is not original.
Date: the doors were a gift of Pantaleone of Amalfi in 1070. Two inscriptions in the panel featuring the martyrdom of Peter give the name of the caster (in Greek: “This has been wrought by the hand of myself, Staurachios, the metal caster. All you who read pray for me”) and artist (in Syriac in similar wording but the name is difficult to decipher).
Provenance: in situ
2. RELATION TO APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE
For descriptions, see Balacqua 2002–2003, pp. 188–99.
Top Left Zone
Line 4: Paul (right), beheaded by executioner; inscription: Ο ΑΓΙΟΣ ΠΑΥΛΟΣ ΕΝ ΡΩΜΙ ΤΕΛΙΟΥΤΕ (source: Acts of Paul)
Bottom Left Zone
Line 1: Peter, crucified upside down (centre), with two executioners, one with rope attaching his feet to the cross; inscription: Ο ΑΓΙΟΣ ΠΕΤΡΟΣ ΥΠΟ ΝΕΡΟΝΟΣ ΣΘΑΥΡΟΘΗΣ ΤΕΛΗΟΥΤΕ (source: Acts of Peter).
Line 2: Andrew (left), attached to two branches of a split tree, with executioners nailing his hands and feet; inscription: Ο ΑΓΙΟΣ ΑΝΔΡΕΑΣ ΕΝ ΠΑΤΡΑ ΣΤΑΥΡΩΘΗΣ ΤΕΛΗΟΥΤΕ (source: Acts of Andrew); John (right), placed by two disciples on his death bed while another mourns him; inscription: Η ΜΕΤΑΣΤΑΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΙΩ ΤΟΥ ΘΕΟΛΟΓΟΥ (source: Acts of John).
Line 3: Bartholomew (centre), attached to a cross, with executioner attaching his feet; inscription: Ο ΑΓΙΟΣ ΒΑΡΘΟΛΟΜΕΟΣ ΚΡΕΜΑΣΘΕΙΣ ΕΠΙ ΣΤΑΥΡΟΥ
ΤΕΛΕΙΟΥΤΑΙ (source: Acts of Bartholomew).
Line 4: Thomas (right), struck by two men with spears; inscription: Ο ΑΓΙΟΣ ΘΩΜΑΣ ΛΟΧΙ ΥΠΟ ΗΝΔΙΑ ΤΕΛΗΟΥΤΕ (source: Acts of Thomas).
Top Right Zone
Line 1: Philip (left), crucified upside down on a wall; inscription: Ο ΑΓΙΟΣ ΦΗΛΙΠΠΟΣ ΚΑΤΑ ΚΕΦΑΛΗΣ ΣΤΑΥΠΟΘΗΣ ΤΕΛΙΩΟΥΤΕ (source: Acts of Philip); James (right), kneeling while an executioner, directed by Herod, prepares to decapitate him; inscription: Ο ΑΓΙΟΣ ΙΑΚΟΒΟΣ ΜΑΧΕΡΑ ΥΠΟ ΗΡΟΔΟΥ ΤΕΛΕΥΤΕ (source: Acts 12).
Line 2: Simon (centre), crucified while an executioner nails his feet; inscription: Ο ΑΓΙΟΣ ΣΙΜΩΝ Ο ΖΗΛΟΤΗΣ ΣΤΑΥΡΩΘΗΣ ΤΕΛΗΟΥΤΕ (source: unknown).
Line 3: Matthew (left), lying on a bed with two men standing nearby and spectators look on; inscription: Η KUMHSIS ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΤΘΕΟΥ (source: unknown); Luke (right), lying on his deathbed with mourning disciples looking on; inscription: Ο ΑΓΙΟΣ ΑΟΥΚΑΣ ΕΝ ΙΡΗΝΙ ΤΕΛΗΟΥΤΕΙ (source: unknown)
Line 4: Mark (centre), beaten by a stick, while another man holds his feet with a rope; inscription: Ο ΑΓΙΟΣ ΜΑΡΚΟΣ ΕΥΑΗΓΕΛΙΣΤΗΣ ΕΝ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΙΑ ΤΕΛΗΟΥΤΕ (source: Martyrdom of Mark).
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bevilacqua, Livia. “Il programma iconografico della porta di S. Paolo fuori le mura.” Pages 239–59 in Le porte del Paradiso: Arte e tecnologia bizantina tra Italia e Mediterraneo. Edited by Antonio Iacobini. Rome: Campisano, 2009.
———. “La porta byzantina di S. Paolo Fuori le Mura: Fonti, ducumenti e testimonianze grafiche (XVI–XIX secolo).” Nuovi annali della Scuola Speciale per Archivisti e Bibliotecari 19 (2005): 185–205.
———. “Roma e Bisanzio nell’ XI secolo: la porta bronzea di S. Paolo fuori le mura.” Tesi di Laurea in Storia dell’Arte Bizantina, Sapienza Università di Roma, 2002–2003.
Cagiano de Azevedo, Michelangelo. “Restauri a porte di bronzo.” Bollettino dell’Istituto Centrale del Restauro 9–10 (1952): 23–40.
Cavallo, Guglielmo, et al. I Bizantini in Italia. Milan: Garzanti, 1982 (p. 417 and fig. 318).
Frazer, Margaret E. “Church Doors and the Gates of Paradise: Byzantine Bronze Doors in Italy.” Dunbarton Oaks Papers 27 (1973): 145–62 (pp. 155–58 and fig. 17).
Frothingham, Arthur L. “A Syrian Artist Author of the Bronze Doors of St. Paul’s, Rome.” AJA 17 (1914): 484–91.
Josi, Enrico, Vittorio Frederici, and Egisto Ercadi. La porta bizantina di San Paolo. Rome: Musei e Gallerie Pontificie, 1967 (pl. facing p. 8 and pls. 2–4).
Matthiae, Guglielmo. Le porte bronzee bizantine in Italia. Rome: Officina, 1971 (pp. 73–82, figs. 16–48).
Preston, Thomas J. “The Bronze Doors of the Abbey of Monte Cassino and of St. Paul’s Rome.” PhD diss., Princeton, 1915.
Seroux d’Agincourt, Jean Baptiste Louis Georges. Storia dell’Arte col mezzo dei monumenti dalla sua decadenza nel IV secolo fino al suo risorgimento nel XVI. 6 vols. Milan: Ranieri Fanfani, 1825 (drawings of the doors prior to the fire of 1823, vol. 4, tavola 13) .
4. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
St. Paul Outside-the-Walls (official web site)
“Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls.” Wikipedia.
“Door in Abbazia di San Paolo fuori le mura, Rome.” Princeton Database of Medieval Art.
“La Porta Bizantina, The 54 panels of the Byzantine Door, St Paul Outside the Walls.” Youtube. Posted by Luigi Manfedi
Entry created by Tony Burke, York University, 25 December 2023.