After Bologna I made a day-trip to the town of Ravenna, which is famous for its medieval mosaics. I've taught many of these mosaics before in class, but I have never seen them myself, and have heard they are quite spectacular in person, so I was very excited to finally have the chance to view them. Ravenna has been on my list of places to go for quite a long time!
A cute town, but not as lovely as Bologna.
The first church I went to was Sant'Apollinare in Classe, which is just outside the city of Ravenna itself, but easily accessible by bus. Given its location though, it is not visited by as many people, and I was lucky to have the grounds and inside almost to myself.
The rear of the church and bell tower on the right.
Inside. Typical of Italian medieval churches, the nave is quite wide and has a single aisle on either side with little decoration. The highlight of the church are the mosaics above the high altar.
Close up of the mosaics. The scene is of the Transfiguration, when Christ climbs Mt Tabor with three of his apostles (Peter, James, and John), and while there is miraculously transfigured or transformed into a heavenly vision of light. At this time two Old Testament figures, Moses and Elijah, appear, and the voice of God calls Jesus his son. Though this is a rather common scene in art of the time, this is a pretty spectacular representation of the story given its abstract nature. Rather than showing Jesus in human form, the artist has represented him as the cross surrounded by a halo of blue and red in the center of the scene. Moses and Elijah float near the cross on either side, and the three sheep in the middle of the scene represent the three apostles present. On the lower section of the scene are twelve more sheep representing all of the apostles, and in the center is Saint Apollonius in a prayer pose. Although Apollonius was not present at the Transfiguration, it was common in art of the time to show the dedicatory saint of the church.
I love the details of this mosaic. The sheep are sooooooo cute and sweet. And this detail is also great because it shows just how schematic Medieval art often was. Obviously you can tell that this event is happening outdoors in a field of some kind, but rather than create a landscape that is detailed and naturalistic, artists of the Middle Ages made things more simplified and symbolic as this made imagery easier to "read" for the viewer.
Detail of the lower imagery surrounding the windows. The entire surface of the high altar is covered in mosaic, but if you think this is spectacular, just wait until my next post!
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