# Interior view [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [ARCHITECT, Italian]() - Date: 0401-0450 - Technique: Photo ## Commentary In addition to the standard basilicas, several major buildings were erected or decorated in Rome in the 5th century that exhibit a classicising style and have thus been identified as part of a renaissance of Classical Roman architecture launched by Pope Sixtus III \(reg 432–440\). Santa Maria Maggiore is one of them. The earliest building on the site was the Liberian Basilica or Santa Maria Liberiana, after Pope Liberius \(352–366\). This building was then replaced under Pope Sixtus III by the present structure dedicated to Mary. The original architecture of Santa Maria Maggiore was classical and traditionally Roman perhaps to convey the idea that Santa Maria Maggiore represented old imperial Rome as well as its Christian future. Its plan was based on Hellenistic principles stated by Vitruvius at the time of Augustus. The Athenian marble columns supporting the nave are older, and either come from the first basilica, or from another antique Roman building. The main feature of the interior is the 5th-century mosaics found on the triumphal arch and nave. The basilica has an unusual orientation with the entrance at the east and altar at the west--a reversal of the usual plan. The photo shows the nave of the basilica with fifth-century mosaics on the triumphal arch showing episodes from Christ's childhood. Over the colonnade, constructed from spolia, a unique cycle of mosaics with scenes from the Old Testament has been preserved from the time of Sixtus III. View the <a href="\#" onClick="w=window.open \('/support/plans/zzzarchi/05c/3/maggiore.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=400,height=600'\);w.opener=this;w.focus\(\);return false">ground plan</a> of the building. ## Related artworks - [Aerial view]() - [Aerial view]() - [Apse of a basilica]() - [Arsenale Gateway]() - [Arsenale Gateway]() - [Basilica di Sant'Antonio: Chiostro del Noviziato]() - [Basilica Santi Nereo e Achilleo]() - [Ca' Foscari: Façade]() - [Chamber of the millers]() - [Chiesa dell'Incoronata: Interior of the dome]() - [Cloister gallery]() - [Detail of the façade]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()