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DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: We're in the Italian city of Ravenna,
standing outside of the Church of San Vitale.
This is a really important 6th century church.
It's just really old.
DR. BETH HARRIS: And it's unusual in that it's
a centrally planned church.
That means its focus is on its center instead of a basilica,
which has a long, or longitudinal, axis.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: Right.
When we think about a church, we generally
think about a building that's shaped like a cross.
And it has that long hallway, the nave.
This doesn't have that.
Instead, it's got an ambulatory, or an aisle
that surrounds its central space.
In this particular case, on the east side of the church,
there's also an extension with an apse at the end.
DR. BETH HARRIS: Looking at the outside of San Vitale,
we see that it has eight sides.
So it's an octagon.
And within that octagon is a smaller octagon
that rises higher.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: The exterior of the church is brick.
Those bricks were taken from ancient Roman buildings
and reused here in the 6th century.
The walls are pierced with lots of windows.
And that's especially important because the interior
is covered with some of the most magnificent mosaics that
survived from the early Medieval period.
DR. BETH HARRIS: And of course, you'd
want that light glistening on the gold
and beautifully colored mosaics.
Let's go inside and have a look.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: We've walked into the church.
And the center towers over us.
DR. BETH HARRIS: And yet these apse-like
shapes that are supported by columns undulates
and moves around us.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: There are massive piers
that help support the building.
But there's also a real delicacy.
Look, for instance, at the way that the columns
are doubled, that is, stacking of one set of columns
above the next.
DR. BETH HARRIS: And they move in and out
back into the space of the ambulatory on the ground floor
and then up into the gallery above.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: But the real gem in this Church
can be seen on the east end.
Let's walk over there.
The eastern end of San Vitale is completely
covered in dense mosaic.
DR. BETH HARRIS: These tiny pieces
of glass and glass sandwiching gold that reflect the light.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: We're walking up
towards the apse now, the semicircular space.
There are three large windows.
And just about that, a large apse mosaic.
DR. BETH HARRIS: And in the center,
we see Christ dressed royally in purple sitting
on an orb, the orb of the Earth, of the universe.
Below flow the four rivers of paradise.
And on either side of him, an angel.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: Christ is holding
the book of the apocalypse with the seven seals visible.
And in his right hand, he's handing a crown
to San Vitalis, who was adopted as the primary martyr
of this city.
DR. BETH HARRIS: And on the other side,
we see Ecclesius, who founded and sponsored
the building of this church.
And we see him handing the church to the angel
beside Christ.
Every surface here in the apse is covered with imagery,
with figures, with decorative patterning.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: The only surfaces
that really are stone are of a very decorative marble, cut
to pair and create wonderful abstract designs.
It is this lush, glorious space here in this city that's
distant, perhaps, from the capital of the empire,
but that speaks to its importance.
DR. BETH HARRIS: Right above the altar,
we see an image of the Lamb of God.
And the Lamb of God refers to Christ.
He's wearing a halo, this idea of Christ
as the sacrificial lamb, sacrificed
for the redemption of mankind.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: The lamb in surrounded
by a wreath of victory.
In this case, the idea of the triumph of Christianity itself.
And that wreath is held in place by four angels who
stand on globes that refer to the globe
upon which Christ in the apse sits.
DR. BETH HARRIS: And then we see Christ
again, but this time bearded, older, in the archway
at the beginning of the chancel.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: Right.
The triumphal arch has Christ in the center.
It's really a kind of bust-length portrait.
And his body is surrounded by a [INAUDIBLE],
kind of rainbow-colored halo.
And then, moving down the arch on either side
are 14 figures, including the apostles.
DR. BETH HARRIS: We see scenes from the Old Testament,
specifically ones that pre-figure the life of Christ
and Christ's sacrifice.
And we see scenes from the New Testament.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: They're also fabulously decorative columns
made our of a high-quality marble that
was brought from the east.
What's most remarkable about these columns
for me is that we've really left behind the classical orders.
These are not Doric, they're not Ionic, they're not Corinthian.
They are early Christians trying to invent
a new iconography for their architecture.
DR. BETH HARRIS: And on top of the capitals,
we see something called impost blocks
that help make the transition up to the arches.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: The two most important mosaics in San Vitale
flank the apse .
DR. BETH HARRIS: And those show the emperor Justinian
and his empress Theodora.
Now, Justinian and Theodora never actually came to Ravenna.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: And they're in the mosaics,
we think, to reassert their control over the city.
DR. BETH HARRIS: For much of the 400s,
Ravenna was under the control of a Goth, Theodoric,
and Theodoric was an Arian, that is,
he didn't follow the orthodoxy, the orthodox doctrines
of the church.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: And basically, the Arians
believed that Christ was the creation of God the Father
and therefore was subordinate in the hierarchy of the Trinity.
DR. BETH HARRIS: Christ was a co-equal
with God the Father the way he is
in orthodox Christian belief.
And so Justinian, the emperor in Constantinople
in the early 500s, sends his general, Belisarius,
to conquer Italy, to reconquer Ravenna, and reestablish
orthodox Christian belief here in Ravenna.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: And the Arian belief was suppressed.
And so what we're seeing here is the reassertion
of Eastern imperial control.
That is, Justinian is in Constantinople in the east,
and he is saying, I'm in charge even here in Ravenna, in Italy.
DR. BETH HARRIS: Spiritual power go
hand in hand with political power,
with the power of the emperor.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: We see Justinian in the center wearing
purple, the color that is associated with the throne.
And he's surrounded by his court.
But there are also religious figures representing the church
and there are soldiers, three centers of power-- the church,
the emperor, and the military.
DR. BETH HARRIS: We can see that some of the figures
are treated more individualistically
than others.
Justinian, Maximian are more individualized.
And it's possible that people at the time
would have looked up and recognized
the other figures who are lost to us today.
But the figures from the army are much more anonymous.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: Justinian, the emperor authority,
is divine.
You can see a halo around his head.
And he holds a bowl associated with the Eucharist, which
is handing in the direction of Christ in the apse.
DR. BETH HARRIS: Right.
This is a bowl that would have contained
the bread for the sacrament of the Eucharist.
He's in the center of the composition.
He's frontal.
But really, all of the figures in this mosaic are front.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: They are schematic, abstracted.
This is the Medieval.
We've left the Classical tradition of naturalism behind.
DR. BETH HARRIS: And so if we look closely at the figures,
we can see that there's no real concern for accurate
proportions.
Their feet don't really seem to carry
the weight of their bodies.
They seem to float in an eternal space and not
in an earthly space.
Next to Justinian, we see the bishop, Maximian,
with his name above him, although that was added later.
And beside him, other clergymen.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: Maximian holds
a beautiful jeweled cross.
And he wears the same purple that the emperor
wears, associating him with the power
of the emperor in Constantinople.
DR. BETH HARRIS: The figures next to him
hold a jeweled book of the Gospels.
And the figure at the far right holds an incense burner.
What we're seeing here is the emperor
leading a procession for the enactment
of the sacrament of the Eucharist.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: And in fact.
The Eucharist would have been performed in the sanctuary.
The figures stand in front of a field of gold, which
is very much a Byzantine tradition.
DR. BETH HARRIS: And when we say Byzantine,
we're referring to the capital of the empire, which
is a Constantinople.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: Which we now call Istanbul.
You'll notice that the tesserae, that
is, these small pieces of colored glass,
many of them with gold leaf that is actually fused almost
like a sandwich in between two pieces of clear glass,
are set into the wall at angles so that the light reflects off
them in a way that is complicated and beautiful
and creates a sense of the liveliness of the surface.
And that would have been especially true
when it was illuminated by candles and by lanterns.
Let's walk around to the other side
and take a look at the panel devoted
to Theodora, Justinian's wife.
To the right of the apse windows,
we see the panel of Theodora, the empress.
And it mirrors the panel with Justinian.
DR. BETH HARRIS: So we have an idea
that Theodora, Justinian's empress,
ruled as co-equal to Justinian, that she
was a very powerful woman, even though she was repeatedly
of lower class, that she was an entertainer apparently.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: There are some colorful descriptions
of her past.
She's wearing incredibly elaborate clothing and jewelry
with rubies, with emeralds, with sapphires,
and very large pearls.
And in back of her head, just like Justinian,
is a halo, which speaks not to her own divinity,
but to the divine origin of her authority.
DR. BETH HARRIS: Like Justinian, who's
carrying a bowl that held the bread for the Eucharist,
Theodora is carrying the chalice for the wine for the Eucharist.
And like Justinian, too, she's surrounded
by attendants that symbolize the imperial court.
A curtain is raised as though she
is about to take part in a ceremony related
to the Eucharist.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: I'm really taken
by the elaborate Byzantine costume.
DR. BETH HARRIS: Well, there's a sense
of trying to bring the richness of the imperial court
in Constantinople here to Ravenna.
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