The mosaics that decorate the apse of Santa Maria in Trastevere are generally believed to be carried out shortly after 1140, under Pope Innocent II (r. 1130–43). The center of the apsidal dome is dominated by the figures of Mary and Christ, seated together on a shared throne, a so-called synthronos. Next to them are lined up seven clerics, including St. Peter, the church's original founder Callixtus, and the church's renovator in the twelfth century, Pope Innocent. As Ernst Kitzinger observed, the anonymous artist took most care in the representation of Mary, dressed in a dress of gold brocade and carrying a phylactery with words inscribed in gold: Leva eius sub capite meo et dex[t]era illius amplesabit[ur] me. This refers to Song of Songs 2:6, which reads ‘His left arm is under my head, and his right arm shall embrace me’. The Song of Songs is a dialogue between lovers, and the fact that precisely these words are chosen for Mary indicates that she and Christ are identified with the bride and the bridegroom of the Old Testament poem.

This essay will focus on the symbolic meaning of Christ's embrace of Mary, but let us first consider the motif as a whole. The position of the two on a synthronos and the fact that Mary has a crown on her head makes the motif very similar to the traditional Coronation of the Virgin.