The mosaics of San Vitale in Ravenna

The story

A church with eight sides

At Ravenna, in north-eastern Italy, there is a church that from outside looks modest: red bricks, an eight-sided body, a plain roof. But when you go inside, you find yourself in front of one of the most splendid spaces of ancient art. It is the basilica of San Vitale, dedicated to a Christian martyr. The plan is octagonal, with a taller central part and a great dome, and inside the walls are covered with marble and mosaics.

The dates are not one hundred per cent certain. Some sources say that building began in 526 or 527, under Bishop Ecclesius; the Italian Wikipedia entry instead says 532. But we know for certain that the church was consecrated on 17 May 547 by Bishop Maximian. The work was paid for by a man named Julian the Banker.

Ravenna: from one capital to another

To understand the church we have to remember the history of the city. Ravenna had been the capital of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths. When San Vitale was built, in Italy the war was going on between the Ostrogoths and the emperor Justinian, who wanted to win back the West. In the end the city passed to the Byzantines. After the reconquest Ravenna stayed Byzantine, and it was here that the art of Constantinople arrived in all its strength.

The mosaic: a painting made of little stones

A mosaic is made of many small cubes, the tesserae, of stone, coloured glass or glass with a thin leaf of gold inside. Placed one beside another, they form an image. In the mosaics of San Vitale the golden backgrounds make the figures seem to hang in a timeless space.

In the apse, the semicircular part behind the altar, you can see Christ seated on the globe of the world between two angels, with Saint Vitalis on one side and Bishop Ecclesius on the other, holding the model of the church. Other mosaics decorate the presbytery, the area in front of the altar, where you can also see a monogram of Christ held up by two eagles and a vault with 27 stars around the Lamb.

Justinian and Theodora

The most famous panels are two, on the side walls of the apse, facing each other. In one is the emperor Justinian, in the centre, with a crown and a purple cloak, with a halo round his head, bringing as a gift a paten, the gold plate used for the bread at Mass. Beside him are his courtiers and soldiers. On his left is Bishop Maximian, the only person in the whole panel who has his name written above his head. This is how scholars know that the mosaic was made after 546, when Maximian became bishop of Ravenna.

In the other panel is the empress Theodora, she too with a halo, leading a procession of elegantly dressed ladies. She carries a golden chalice with jewels. According to some, on the hem of her cloak are embroidered the three Magi bringing gifts to Jesus: a way of saying that emperors too bring gifts to the Church.

There is a curious fact that visitors often do not know. Justinian and Theodora, it seems, never came to Ravenna: they are shown as if they were present at the consecration, but the mosaic is a solemn image, not a photograph of a real moment. It served to remind the people of Ravenna who now ruled their city.

How to read a Byzantine image

The figures face the front, motionless, with big eyes and a fixed gaze. They do not try to copy nature as Roman painters did: they want to show an order. There is no landscape, no perspective, and the characters seem to hang against a golden background that recalls the sky and the light of God. The faces, however, are individual, and the fabrics and jewels are shown with incredible care. For those who looked at it, the emperor was God's representative on Earth, and art had to make that clear.

Since 1996 San Vitale has been part of the UNESCO site of the Early Christian Monuments of Ravenna. Pope John XXIII raised it to the rank of minor basilica in October 1960.