Yawn, LilaSalvadori, SharonTorello, Kelsie2024-09-202024-09-202018Torello, Kelsie. "Sun in the Garden : Medieval Light Theology and the San Zeno Chapel in Santa Prassede". Master's Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2018.https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14490/275Master of Arts in Art History -- John Cabot University, Fall 2018.This thesis focuses on the Chapel of San Zeno in Santa Prassede, interpreting the mosaic decorations within through the lens of Medieval light theology. The intent is to answer questions surrounding the interaction between the window and the mosaics within the chapel, the importance of light in medieval aesthetics and how they are reflected in the chapel, and how these theologies change or give a deeper reading of the iconography. In particular two major aspects of the chapel will be addressed, the window and its mosaic program and the scene directly across from it. The study establishes the mosaic program within the chapel with short section by section descriptions before focusing on the two most important mosaics within the overall scheme, the hetoimasia and the deisis window. This window is one of the primary focuses of the thesis, as it is not only a source of light within the chapel but is recognized and acknowledged by the figures around it, turning it into the final figure in the Byzantine composition, the deisis. Late Antique and Medieval scholars provide evidence for the importance of light in the Middle Ages up to and continuing after the ninth century at the time of the chapel’s construction. The importance of the materials used in relation to light, in both the Byzantine world and Medieval West is discussed and inscriptions from other churches of the same era used as comparanda along with structures of a similar type and with similar arrangements. These elements are then brought together to reinterpret the established mosaic program and argue in favor of light as a unifying element within the chapel. Additionally some hypotheses of the original form of the deisis window are considered.67 pagesenAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/S. Prassede (Church : Rome, Italy)Thesis