In 2004 Leslie Brubaker made a rather somber joke about the church of Santa Maria Antiqua, saying that it had been the victim of “one hundred years of solitude,” an allusion the fact that, since the discovery of the church in 1900 by Giacomo Boni, its walls had been all but shut to the public.1 Recently, however, the church was the site of a major exhibition, thus ending that long period of isolation. Visitors were finally able to experience and study the medieval paintings, many of which were beautifully explained through a series of videos projected on the walls.
The church has a history of hiding, even though it is in a very public and prominent part of Rome—along the northwestern slope of the Palatine Hill, in the southwestern zone of the Roman Forum. The church was first constructed at the end of the fifth century C.E. At least...
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