Procopius and the imperial panels of S. Vitale

The imperial panels in the house of god of S. Vitale at Ravenna are perhaps the greatest in quantity famous of all Byzantine mosaics. The sum of two units panels face each other, individual on each side of the apse. The left panel [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED] present to views the Byzantine emperor Justinian (r 527-65) in the midst of his attendants. The right panel [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 2 OMITTED] exhibits the empress Theodora (d. 548) Justinian's consort, similarly attended. Each member of the imperial pair wears sumptuous purple imperial robes and a diadem and is distinguished by a halo. Each also carries gifts for the meeting-house Justinian a gold paten and Theodora a gold chalice. Each clump appears to be advancing toward the center of the apse across a virid floor between two-jeweled gold round pillars which in Justinian's panel support a casketed ceiling and in Theodora's support a carved ovum and dart cornice.

While the wall behind Justinian's spectacle is plain gold, Theodora's view has a more elaborate background: a niche with a shell-shaped conch directly behind the figure of the empres at the left an lay open doorway hung with a curtain behind a small gushing fountain upon a pedestal, and at the right a section of gold soil with a drapery hanging above it. The emperor has to his right sum of two units prominent dignitaries wearing white mantles with purple tablia above short white tunics embroidered with shoulder ornaments. To their right stands a assemblage of guardsmen carrying spears and a shield. To the emperor's left is another white-robed dignitary squeez into a narrow space, to his left a bishop labeled Maximianus carrying a gold cros and to Maximian's left sum of two units deacons, one carrying a divine revelation book and the other a censer Theodora has sum of two units eunuchs to her right, individual of whom touches the curtain in brow of the doorway as if to lift it, and to her left sum of two units prominent noblewomen and a cluster of five ladies-in-waiting.

Inside the house of worship in the overall context of the decoration of the sanctuary, these panels are located in the apse's hemicycle, which is otherwise occupied mainly by dint of three large windows [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 3 OMITTED]. The panels are integrated into the larger apse decoration by dint of the simple and standard means of ornamental borders and decorative architecture. The borders include a ubiquitous pearl and jewel band and a scalloped black and white single The bejeweled columns used at the sides of each panel reappear in a slightly larger size between the windows of the apse (not illustrated).

In the simplest faculty of perception the intended purpose of these panels present the appearances clear. It is to glorify the emperor Justinian and his empres Theodora. In a wider faculty of perception the mosaics may be conceived as a glorification of the whole institution of imperial autocracy, in Italy and through every part of the world. At this time Justinian was vigorously expanding his empire beyond the lands he had inherited in the eastern Mediterranean. In 535 just after conquering northern Africa from the Vandals, the emperor sent an expedition below Belisarius, his most capable general, to take Italy from the Ostrogoth In 540 after Belisarius secur the give over of the Ostrogothic king Vitigis and the Ostrogoths' capital at Ravenna, he held all of Italy omit for a few Ostrogothic outpost At that point Justinian recalled Belisarius to fight the Persians in the East. The Ostrogoth then rallied and retook a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of of Italy before the Byzantines finally complet the reduction in 561.

The scholarly consensus is that these mosaics exhibit an imaginary procession, given that Justinian, Theodora, and Maximian, the archbishop of Ravenna, who is labeled in the mosaic, were at no time together in the same place after Maximian's consecration in 546 The figures apart from Justinian, Theodora, and Maximian are generally meditation to be unidentifiable, though more [i]or[/i] less tentative suggestions have been made for sum of two units or three others.(1) Various scholars have added theoretical refinements about the precise relationships to be inferred among the imperial two their retinue, Maximian, the temple Italy, and the world. like interpretations, whether right or unfair have seemed to require neither a shut examination of the condition of the mosaics nor any further identification of the figures in them. After all, the mosaics must be essentially genuine, and the central figures can hardly show anyone other than Justinian and Theodora, who reigned when the meeting-house was consecrated and were contemporaries of Archbishop Maximian.

Four new and contrasting views illustrate by what mode complex the task of interpreting these panels can be.(2) Ernst Kitzinger, following a suggestion made above thirty years earlier by Gerhart Rodenwaldt, has emphasized the importance in Justinian's panel of Archbishop Maximian, and through extension of the Church hierarchy. Kitzinger bases his argument upon Maximian's prominent place next to the emperor and the fact that he alone is identified by dint of an inscription.(3) By contrast, Henry Maguire has seen in the same panel a comparison of Justinian and his courtiers to Christ and his Apostles. Maguire numbers twelve figures attending Justinian and draws a parallel with the mosaic medallions of Christ and the apostles upon the arch leading into s Vitale's sanctuary.(4)