Justinian, Bishop Maximianus, and attendants, mosaic

From the Early Byzantine era, this is the Justinian, Bishop Maximianus, and attendants, mosaic from the north wall of the apse, San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy. Produced somewhere around 547 CE, this mosaics reveals the new Byzantine aesthetic.

An ethereal, flat background, with an abstract, bejeweled frame, contains the tall and elongated figures of Justinian, the Bishop and the attendants. Missing from the image is any mention of background, ground line, or architectural reference. There is no perspective or individualism to the figures with the exception of facial variations. It is suspected that these faces were painted as portraits. The figures are void of modeling. The robes hang lifeless from the formless figures. The austerity of the mosaic reinforces the serious theological message implied by the over simplification. There is no definable light source and no shadowing; ever figure is lit equally.

The mosaics of San Vitale “the most climatic achievements of Byzantine art”, communicate to all who view them of the “holy ratification of Justinian’s right to rule.” Justinian is front and center flanked by the Bishop and attendants—this heraldic positioning expresses precedence and rank. Justinian is dressed in the royal purple robe and has a nimbus—another allusion to his holiness and rightful place as ruler of the Christian empire. The abstractly thin and elongated figures are arranged in three groups with a leader taking precedence with his foot overlapping the person behind him. The imperial guard bearing a shield with the chi-rho-iota alludes to Christ. Justinian carries the paten, which is slightly overlapping the Bishop’s arm. This symbolizes the “imperial and churchly powers are in balance. In this artist’s rendering “the emperor appears forever as a participant in the sacred rites and as the proprietor of this royal church and the ruler of the Western Empire.”

The Ara Pacis Procession and the San Vitale mosaic are similar and yet different. The Ara Pacis includes fully modeled marble figures which stand upon a firm, well defined ground line while the Justinian group seem hover before the viewer, are fully frontal and unlike the Ara Pacis figures are weightless and speechless. The Ara Pacis figures represent the classical idealized beauty while the Justinian group are tall, spare and angular---abstract in nature. Gone are the organic bodies of the Early Empire replaced by the procession of solemn spirits gliding silently in the presence of the sacrament.

The theological basis for this approach to representation was the principle that the divine is invisible and that the purpose of religious art is to stimulate spiritual seeing.