Christ Blessing with St. Giles the Abbot and St. Eutropius the Bishop

Writing in the local magazine “Il Piccolo” on 26 June 1910, Lanzoni reports that during demolition of a wall in a house situated at no. 64, Viale Mazzini in Faenza, where the ancient church of Sant’Eutropio once stood, a limestone bas-relief was discovered set into the wall and covered in a thick layer of plaster. Lanzoni suggested that the bas-relief was plastered over when the church was most probably renovated in the 16th century, given that a pastoral visit in 1578 mentions that the church of Sant’Eutropio had been thoroughly renovated some two years ealier: “Ecclesia (S. Eutropii) fuit inventa fere in totum noviter instaurata a duobus annis circa”). Unfortunately, it is impossible to establish the bas-relief’s original whereabouts because the church was demolished down to its very foundations in the 19th century.

The demolition also revealed two ornamental fragments and a brick bearing the date 1099 which it has been suggested may well indicate the position of the foundation stone (Tambini 2006). The year 1127 celebrating the church’s rebuilding is inscribed on the large band framing the bas-relief, while an inscription in smaller letters on the inner part of the band contains a formula interceding for the souls of Rodolfo, who commissioned the rebuilding, and of his son Ugo.

Christ, in the centre with a cruciform halo, blesses with his right hand while holding in his left hand a book with the words “EGO SUM LUX VERA”, a reference to the Gospel of St. John (Jn, 8:12; 14:6). The figure on the right is St. Eutropius holding a bishop’s crosier, as we learn from the inscription running around the edge of the bas-relief, while on Christ’s other side Lanzoni identified St. Giles, who is depicted with his attribute, the doe. According to a legend transcribed by members of the Bollandist Society in their Acta Sanctorum, the saint survived during his years as a hermit on the doe’s milk (AA SS Sept., I, before 10th century). Lanzoni also surmised that the saint’s name was included in the inscription around the edge, in the part ruined by builders when they inserted iron brackets and the street number of the house.

According to Anna Tambini, writing in 2006, the sculptor may have been influenced by the Romanesque style of the Po Valley, particularly in the sculptural solidity of his figures’ bodies which, she argues, lends the bas-relief a “somewhat rough, uncouth feel”.