Tourists trampling crowd the pavement in the narthex of the vast St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican in Rome do not always remember to look before bronze doors of the fifteenth century and looking over the great central door of the portico, a mosaic depicting the "Ship.
Those who visited the church of Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune protestant de Strasbourg Navicella know another, more easily visible, which replicates that of Rome. We refer to the studies of Professor Albert Chatelet (whose article "Back to the" Ship ", Revue d'Alsace , 1996, v. 122, p. 201-208) for the analysis and history of the work, including reproduction Strasbourg evokes the deplorable state of the Church in the late Middle Ages. Christ helps Peter out of the water is also the savior of his church: that is the meaning of this representation of real events (the papacy is now in Avignon) at the time of its creator Giotto (d. 1337).
Here is a photograph of the Roman mosaic, transferred (and heavily restored) of the old basilica in the new porch in the early seventeenth century. We note, kneeling on the bottom right of the work, a pope in prayer.
Benedict Jordan-ACPRA
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