Images: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Clavis number: ECMA 137
Other descriptors: Rondelle with Scene of St. Thecla in the Lion’s Den
Object Number: 48-10
Category: limestones
Related Literature: Acts of Paul and Thecla
Featured characters and locations: Thecla
1. DESCRIPTION
Material: limestone
Size: h × diam: 9.53 × 64.77 cm
Image: The central figure is Thecla and she is flanked by two angels at the top and two beasts, likely lions, at the bottom. The whole scene is surrounded with laurel branches. First, focusing on the actual depiction of Thecla, she is represented with an aura representing her holiness. Thecla is tied up with rope; however in this piece she also seems to be wearing a robe, even though the text states that her clothes were torn off her. There are multiple different interpretations of the beasts that are shown. It is generally agreed that the defending lioness that protected Thecla is included in the image on Thecla’s right; however the other beast, on Thecla’s left, is sometimes interpreted as either a bear or a lion. Based on the former name of the roundel, it does appear that the second animal is most likely the lion.
Date: 5th cent.
Provenance: found in Oxyrhynchus or Ahnas; purchased from Paul Mallon of New York by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in 1948.
2. RELATION TO APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE
From the Act of Paul and Thecla, St. Thecla’s martyrdom in the arena of Antioch is a popular scene in early Christian artwork. There are two main sections that could have influenced this piece of art as both sections mention the presence of the lioness as the protector and the attacking beasts.
For the procession of the wild beasts, they bound Thecla to a fierce lioness; and Queen Tryphaena followed her. But while Thecla was sitting on the lioness, it began licking her feet, to the amazement of the entire crowd. The charge against her was inscribed: ‘Sacrilegious.’ (28, trans. Bart D. Ehrman, Lost Scriptures: Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).
Thecla was then taken from the hand of Tryphaena and stripped, given an undergarment to wear and cast into the stadium. Lions and bears were cast in to attack her. And a fierce lioness ran up and lay down at her feet. The crowd of women uttered a great cry. A bear ran up to attack her; but the lioness ran up, met the bear, and ripped him apart. Then a lion owned by Alexander and trained to fight humans ran up to attack her; the lioness tangled with the lion and was destroyed along with it. The women were even more grief stricken, since the lioness that had been protecting her died. (33; trans. Ehrman)
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Castelli, Elizabeth. Martyrdom and Memory: Early Christian Culture Making. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004 (pp. 162–64, fig. 1).
Cartlidge, David, and J. Keith Elliot. 2001. Art and the Christian Apocrypha. London and New York: Routledge, 2001 (pp. 154–55, fig. 5.10).
Davis, Stephen J. The Cult of Saint Thecla: A Tradition of Women’s Piety in Late Antiquity. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008 (p. 235, fig. 29).
Hermann, John, and Anneweis van den Hoek. “116. Saint Thecla in the Arena.” Page 226 in Antioch: The Lost Ancient City. Edited by Christine Kondoleon. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.
Nauerth, Claudia, and Rüdiger Warns. Thekla: Ihre Bilder in der Frühchristlichen Kunst. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1981 (pp. 31–34, fig. 14).
Weitzman, Kurt, ed. Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979 (pp. 574–75).
4. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
“Roundel with Thecla Surrounded by Beasts and Angels.” Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index.
Entry created by Katie Fuentes, under the supervision of Christy Cobb, University of Denver, 26 July 2023.