Colossal Ceiling From the Time of Emperors Commudus and Septimus Sererus
The ceiling fragment dated somewhere between the end of the first and the early second century A.D. is vertically positioned at the entrance of the Gregorian Profane Museum. It is a white marble, markedly crystalline and grey-veined, it is most probably Luna marble, now referred to as Carrara marble.
The piece, already in the second room of the Lateran Museum, was moved to the Vatican in 1963. It was found in Sept. 18, 1858, during the renovation of the pavement in the transept of St. John’s Basilica. Later it was relocated to the courtyard of the Lateran Palace, where it remained until 1910. It was actually “recycled” in its mode of use; in fact, the back of the antique ceiling became part of the new floor of the transept, the so-called “Clementina Ship” built under Pope Clement VIII Aldobrandini, on the occasion of the Jubilee in 1600.
On the back, traces of polychrome marble inlays are actually still visible. These probably represent the coat of arms of the Pope, the outline of which is partially reconstructed by the “negative
