Zusammenfassung / Abstract
The old ‘leonine portico’ of San Giovanni in Laterano – an unknown representation” – The Constantinian apse of the Lateran Basilica was most likely provided with a semicircular ambulatory in the 6th century. Both structures were replaced between 1880 and 1886 by Leo XIII with the current choir complex, in which a permanent papal cathedra was erected for the first time in centuries. While numerous pictorial sources show the interior of the apse, there are very few documents for the porticus. These have now been supplemented by a small painting from a private collection, which accurately documents the southern section of the interior of the porticus and allows a view into the real spatial conditions for the first time. It is possible that this painting, which was probably created in the 1830’s or 1840’s, is a work by the German-Roman painter Franz Nadorp.