Scolpire a Roma per Pasquale I (817-824)? L'oratorio di San Zenone

Writing about medieval sculpture in Rome, Raffaele Cattaneo (1888) defined the famous oratory of San Zenone as "the most remarkable thing Santa Prassede includes among the remains of the IX century". The reliquary chapel in which Theodora, mother of Pope Pasquale I (817-824) was buried, and the ninth-century mosaics still preserve the original structural bond between the walls of the building, the architectural sculpture and the opus sectile floor. In addition to materials of classical age, the architectural sculpture of the oratory also includes a number of early medieval spolia. In dialogue with the report by Paola Pogliani dedicated to the mosaics of San Zenone, the contribution analyzes the formal and functional peculiarities of the oratory's sculptural elements, investigating the choices of reuse and proposing a hypothesis on the origin of some materials.