Hans G
IMG_3573 Interior wide, Basilica di San Vitale
Interior showing part of the octagonal plan and presbytery; taken with a Canon EOS 1v.
The great cupola is decorated with uninteresting 18th-century murals, but the remainder of the interior is fully Byzantine and provides an authentic atmosphere of antiquity. And most famously, the ceilings of the choir and apse glitter with magnificent Byzantine mosaics in green and gold.
The arch that marks the entrance into the presbytery is decorated with large mosaic medallions of Christ (with beard), the Twelve Apostles, and two other saints who are probably Gervasius and Protasius, sons of St. Vitalus. Each apostle has a different appearance and hairstyle - don't miss the Einstein-like hair on St. Andrew! Surrounding the medallions are pairs of dolphins with their tails crossed, globes and crosses.
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The mosaics in the Basilica di S. Vitale are certainly the most organically important mosaic complex of late-antique Christian art.
The unity and the perfection of style combine with a political- religious thought which no other mosaic or literary work succeeds in fully celebrating, with regard to the empire of Justinian (and Theodora), as do the articulated cycles of the S. Vitale apse and presbytery.
Celebration of Justinian's empire does not rest only in the imperial works with the Emperor and the Empress: celebration is closely linked with the reign and empire of Christ Almighty, demonstrated with the chief signs of power: the cosmic globe as a throne and, in the left hand, the scroll (the Book) of the Law, which is to say the Wisdom that rules the world. And while the Archangels Michael on the right and Gabriel on the left represent the eternal court of Christ (eternal in the youthful expression of the beardless face placed out of time), the figures of the soldier martyr Vitale and the bishop Ecclesius join a temporal history in which Justinian's terrestrial empire exists, with the idea of a reign without end.
The arch of the apse with its imperial eagles bearing the monogram of Christ and the cornucopias which express the riches of the empire, in the Roman tradition of imperial triumph, link the political dimension with the religious. Concrete history is shown by the emperor's and archbishop Maximianus' unity of intent, the latter immortalizing himself in this doctrinal synthesis by signing the work clearly in the Latin version of his name.
In the presbytery, near the imperial pictures, are four scenes from the life of Moses: the liberating prophet, lawgiver, great leader, prototype emperor, author of the Book of Civil Law. Still in the presbytery, the imposing figures of the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, from the Old Testament, and the Four Evangelists from the New Testament represent the bearing witness, both historical and of the faith, of what is illustrated with regard to unity of Church and Empire, Empire and Priesthood. In the triumphal arch of the same presbytery everything is sealed by the Christ with his Apostles (to whom, for devotional reasons, are added S. Gervasio and S. Protasio, considered sons of S. Vitale). And the religious aspect comes once more to the fore in the sublime and celestial triumphal centrality of the Lamb of the Apocalypse. This is Christ himself (in a heaven of twenty-seven stars, a threefold and Trinitarian number and symbol) who reigns forever, announced in the time of providential prophetic history by the biblical sacrifices of Abel and Melchizedek on the right, and Abraham on the left. In the presbytery, at the center of the wall above the arch of the apse, between the symbolic cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, there is the solar symbol with Alpha at the center, meaning Christ creator, with the emanation of rays, of the cosmos and the historical world. A clear triumph over the Ostrogoths and all the barbarian peoples (Visigoths, Vandals) who invade the Empire. But being Arian they are overcome by Justinian's anti-Arian faith.
initaly.com/regions/byzant/byzant4.htm#sanvit
IMG_3573 Interior wide, Basilica di San Vitale
Interior showing part of the octagonal plan and presbytery; taken with a Canon EOS 1v.
The great cupola is decorated with uninteresting 18th-century murals, but the remainder of the interior is fully Byzantine and provides an authentic atmosphere of antiquity. And most famously, the ceilings of the choir and apse glitter with magnificent Byzantine mosaics in green and gold.
The arch that marks the entrance into the presbytery is decorated with large mosaic medallions of Christ (with beard), the Twelve Apostles, and two other saints who are probably Gervasius and Protasius, sons of St. Vitalus. Each apostle has a different appearance and hairstyle - don't miss the Einstein-like hair on St. Andrew! Surrounding the medallions are pairs of dolphins with their tails crossed, globes and crosses.
.
The mosaics in the Basilica di S. Vitale are certainly the most organically important mosaic complex of late-antique Christian art.
The unity and the perfection of style combine with a political- religious thought which no other mosaic or literary work succeeds in fully celebrating, with regard to the empire of Justinian (and Theodora), as do the articulated cycles of the S. Vitale apse and presbytery.
Celebration of Justinian's empire does not rest only in the imperial works with the Emperor and the Empress: celebration is closely linked with the reign and empire of Christ Almighty, demonstrated with the chief signs of power: the cosmic globe as a throne and, in the left hand, the scroll (the Book) of the Law, which is to say the Wisdom that rules the world. And while the Archangels Michael on the right and Gabriel on the left represent the eternal court of Christ (eternal in the youthful expression of the beardless face placed out of time), the figures of the soldier martyr Vitale and the bishop Ecclesius join a temporal history in which Justinian's terrestrial empire exists, with the idea of a reign without end.
The arch of the apse with its imperial eagles bearing the monogram of Christ and the cornucopias which express the riches of the empire, in the Roman tradition of imperial triumph, link the political dimension with the religious. Concrete history is shown by the emperor's and archbishop Maximianus' unity of intent, the latter immortalizing himself in this doctrinal synthesis by signing the work clearly in the Latin version of his name.
In the presbytery, near the imperial pictures, are four scenes from the life of Moses: the liberating prophet, lawgiver, great leader, prototype emperor, author of the Book of Civil Law. Still in the presbytery, the imposing figures of the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, from the Old Testament, and the Four Evangelists from the New Testament represent the bearing witness, both historical and of the faith, of what is illustrated with regard to unity of Church and Empire, Empire and Priesthood. In the triumphal arch of the same presbytery everything is sealed by the Christ with his Apostles (to whom, for devotional reasons, are added S. Gervasio and S. Protasio, considered sons of S. Vitale). And the religious aspect comes once more to the fore in the sublime and celestial triumphal centrality of the Lamb of the Apocalypse. This is Christ himself (in a heaven of twenty-seven stars, a threefold and Trinitarian number and symbol) who reigns forever, announced in the time of providential prophetic history by the biblical sacrifices of Abel and Melchizedek on the right, and Abraham on the left. In the presbytery, at the center of the wall above the arch of the apse, between the symbolic cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, there is the solar symbol with Alpha at the center, meaning Christ creator, with the emanation of rays, of the cosmos and the historical world. A clear triumph over the Ostrogoths and all the barbarian peoples (Visigoths, Vandals) who invade the Empire. But being Arian they are overcome by Justinian's anti-Arian faith.
initaly.com/regions/byzant/byzant4.htm#sanvit