Memories of Ravenna

 San Vitale exterior, Ravenna

The church of San Vitale, Ravenna is most famous for its wealth of Byzantine mosaics – the largest and best preserved outside of Istanbul.   

 San Vitale interior

San Vitale’s mosaics were created in the Hellenistic-Roman tradition: lively and imaginative, with rich colors and a certain perspective, and with a vivid depiction of the landscape, plants and birds.

In the central section, a series of mosaics above the lunettes depict sacrifices from the Old Testament: Cain and Abel; Abraham and Melchizedek; Isaac; Moses and the burning bush; Jeremiah and Isaiah; and representatives of the 12 tribes of Israel.  A pair of angels, each holding a medallion with a cross, crowns each lunette.

In the corners, where the side walls join, are mosaics of the four evangelists of the New Testament (using their traditional symbols – a man for Matthew, lion for Mark, ox for Luke and eagle for John).  

Above, the cross-ribbed vault is richly ornamented with mosaic festoons of leaves, fruit and flowers, converging on a crown encircling the Lamb of God. The crown is supported by four angels, and every surface is covered with a profusion of flowers, stars, birds and animals.

At the summit of the vault, a young Jesus appears seated on a blue globe, robed in purple, with his right hand offering the martyr's crown to Saint Vitale. 

Christ enthroned, San Vitale

The face of Christ, San Vitale 

When art professor Bob Pelfrey visited San Vitale, its mosaics inspired him to create art in another form:

  

Ravenna

the mosaics that sparkle

            on Ravenna’s coloring book walls

                        give nature new life—

           

            dolphins leap—

            always in pairs—

            and cornucopias overlap

                        up

                            and

                                    down

            arches

            in a staggering arithmetic

                                                of abundance.

            simple pots sprout vines

                        that coil up and spin

                        until sheer dizziness sweeps them

                                    back to earth again,

            completing yet  another golden arch

                        touching earth to heaven.

            flowers, turtles, lions

                        converse and dance

            while in every corner

                        peacocks flash their tails

                                    like rainbows

            and everywhere—even more than gold—

                        the color

                                    green.

and here—

            the cross is not

                        the executioner’s song…

like nature

            it is slippery with the sap of life.

and so here

            the face of Christ—

presiding from the curved space of the apse—

is unfamiliar, too:

            I see a beardless youth

                        with wide black eyes

                        that would stop the heart of any Italian girl…

            a Dionysian Christ

                        springing from deep within the green.

           

            and even though he wears Caesar’s purple robes,

                        he seems about to

                        transform his mantle of power

                                    into the miracle

                                                of wine.           

 

© Bob Pelfrey, 2012