TCP#2: San Vitale, Ravenna

The San Vitale Basilica or Basilica di San Vitale is located in the city of Ravenna in Italy which is a city located in the central part of Italy. The San Vitale Basilica construction started by the Bishop of Ravenna name Ecclesius after he returned from a trip from Byzantium where he met with Pope John in 526.  The construction of the Basilica Started in the site where the martyrdom of ST. Vitalis occurred and the basilica project was almost entirely funded by a wealthy person at that time named Julianus Argentarius who was a powerful person in Ravenna. The name of the architect of the basilica remains unknown till this day but it is important to mention that the basilica construction started during the time where the Goths were in control of Ravenna but the basilica was later finished during the times where the Byzantine rule Ravenna around 548 (Bovini).

The Basilica of San Vitale is fascinating in its design and structure because it is not purely a byzantine building or a Christian building, but it is a combination of both the Roman style and the byzantine style, which make it unique in appearance and beauty. The exterior of the Basilica of San Vitale is an octagonal structure composed with a small dome, which was typical of Byzantine architecture, also the octagonal plan have two stories closing a central space beneath a great cupola. Another characteristic of the exterior is that there is a porch attached at an angle in the west side of the structure and to the east there is a small choir and apse. The interior of the Basilica of San Vitale is decorated with 18<sup>Th</sup> century murals like in the cupola but the rest of the interior is decorated in a byzantine style, also one of the most notorious part of the interior of the Basilica are the Byzantine mosaics that are located in the ceilings of the choir and apse (Garotti).

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There is an arch that establishes the entrance to the presbytery and that part is decorated with mosaics that depict Christ, the apostles and some saints. The Presbytery or the Choir has many mosaics and its ceilings and walls have mosaics representing the Eucharist service, the left wall of the presbytery is characterized by mosaics representing the life of Abraham and the mosaics present stories like the one that Abraham is close to sacrifice his son in order to follow God wishes. On the right wall of the Presbytery is characterized by mosaics depicting Moses and some prophets, most of the mosaics have some sort of animals accompanying the main characters of the mosaics. Then there is the Presbytery vault, which is decorated with brilliant gold, green, blue colors and with small animals. Then there are the apse mosaics that dated from 526-547 AD and presents a full shave Jesus with San Vitale flanking him and with Bishop Ecclesius and a couple of angels, Also some mosaics depict emperor Justinian who was one of the biggest emperor of the Byzantine empire (MacDonald).

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The 6<sup>Th</sup> century period is characterized by the fall of the Roman Empire and this period represents a point of changes and devastation especially in the Roman Empire. During this period one main characteristic was the spread of Catholicism in the west and dethroned Arianism as the main religion in the west. In a way that allows more unity regarding religion and the 6<sup>th</sup> is described as the period of a great emperor named Justinian. During this period Italy was in ruins and many people die to the devastation and war that lasted many years, also the roman empire suffer from the devastation of earthquakes and the invasion of other empires like the Persians. One huge event I think for this period is what happened from all this devastation and that was basically that the population dropped dramatically in Rome below 100,000 and also another aspect is that Latin lost some traction in society and Greek became very preponderant in some parts. During the 6<sup>th</sup> century the Byzantine empire led by emperor Justinian the Great who came to power in AD 527 and returned the glory to the empire by making some changes in the way the legal system and how things were administered in the empire and also emperor Justinian allow and promote the construction of many churches and many mosaics that ended up promoting Christianity. Emperor Justinian was married to a famous ex-courtesan name Theodora and one of their mosaic where both appear facing each other is located in the Basilica of San Vitale. Theodora play a big role in governing the empire and in the making of the important decisions and is she is attributed with helping emperor Justinian made the decision of staying in Constantinople when there was a revolt in AD 532. In AD 537 architects working on the church of Santa Sofia made great developments in construction by being able to place a dome on top of a square formed of four arches. Another development during this period was the promotion of many reforms in the way the civil services were administered with the idea that corruption should be controlled and also with the idea of how to better collected the tax, these measures at the beginning were very unpopular because many did not wanted any change, only after many years pass by the reforms made by Justinian promote are seen as innovative and important. Another development conducted by emperor Justinian was the appointment of a commission of ten men that were in charged of checking was happened during past administrations so in way they were fiscalizing previous governments. Also the commission was in charge of giving a pure version of the constitution and they did by publishing what is known as the Codex  Constitutionum  which is basically a constitution that was published in AD 529. Later in AD 534 the constitutions was modified by a new text named Digesta  which became the new codex. The Codex of AD 534 is what is currently known as the Justinian code of law and consists basically of 12 books with more than 4,000 laws (Ostrogorsky).

The early Christian architecture involved the construction of two types of buildings: the basilicas that were designed for worship and as a place for people to meet and the other type of buildings were the martyrium which served as a place where people that have died could be venerated. Some of the main characteristics of Byzantine art are the idea that things should go out of the ordinary and into the extraordinary. In architecture there was a focus for aesthetic detail like for example the use of walls that are supposed to look like curtains and that are supporting a dome and also the use of marble and gold was very common in byzantine art. Byzantine art had an especial focus on Christian ideas and also the decoration of buildings particularly inside them was very detail oriented and with many ornaments. The greatest building in the Byzantine Empire was Hagia Sophia, which is also known as the church of the divine wisdom in Constantinople that was build by emperor Justinian. During the 6<sup>th</sup> century many developments happened in mathematics and also in art to a degree that the period is consider a golden age for byzantine art. For example the architect of the basilica of Hagia Sophia named Anthemius mentioned that architecture needed the use of mathematics in order to transform the solid matter and molded into spectacular shapes. Byzantine art also used materials considered the best at that time like granite and marble, the structures were also full of mosaics like the ones present in the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna (Cormack).

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According to Krautheimer The Basilica of San Vitale is the only building or structure outside of Constantinople that really approaches the level of elegance and sophistication of the Byzantine structures like Hagia Sophia. Usually when people talk about the basilica of San vitale they do it because it offers a way to determine the main characteristics of Byzantine buildings and also the basilica serves as a way to analyze western imperial designs. The design of the Basilica of San Vitale was inspired by the design of the basilica of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople and one of the main purposes for the developing of the Basilica of San Vitale at the beginning was to have a building that surpass by far any other building in the west especially the Arian Cathedral known as San Apollonaire Nuovo that was built by Theodoric. The design of the Basilica of San Vitale is more simplistic that the one of the basilica of Hagia Sophia but it has a complexity in the volumes and the spatial vistas, for example the interior of the basilica is complex with many overlapping vistas that have no comparison not even in Constantinople, which made the Basilica of san Vitale as one of the Great buildings in the west during the 6<sup>th</sup> century.

In my opinion the Basilica of San Vitale is one of the greatest buildings of the 6<sup>th</sup> century because of its sheer beauty and the incredible mosaics. Although I have not visited the basilica in person I can tell that the mixture of roman architecture like the doomed roof or the arches in doorways and Byzantine architecture like the polygonal shapes use and detailed of the work make the basilica a unique building not only in the 6<sup>th</sup> century but also till this day. Another aspect that in my opinion is interesting is symbolism and the sacred objects used in the basilica, for example, there are many mosaics that depict events from the Old Testament like the story of Abraham, the story of Cain and Abel among some of them. Another aspect that can put into perspective of how important the Basilica was at the time of its creation is that according to my research during the splendor of the Byzantine Empire many people travel to Ravenna that was a big city in the empire in order to witness such an extraordinary structure. In a way the basilica is more than a marvelous structure and building but also a place where people can look and traced back some of the roots and ideas of one of the biggest empires the world have ever seen.

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<strong>Works Cited</strong>

-Krautheimer, Richard. Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture. Baltimore: Penguin Books. 1965

-Bovini, Guiseppe. Ravenna: Art and History . Publisher: Longo (1978)

-Ostrogorsky, George. History of the Byzantine State. Rutgers.The State University of New Jersey. 1997

-MacDonald,  L. William. Early Christian and Byzantine architecture. New York . 1962

-Garotti. G. A History of Art. Volume 2. Publisher: E.P Dutton . New York. 1909

-Cormack, robin. Byzantine Art (Oxford History of Art). Oxford university Press. 2000.

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