San Vitale

Abstract San Vitale in Ravenna is best known for a rare survival of Byzantine imperial portraiture: mosaic panels in the sanctuary depict Justinian I (527–565 CE ) and his empress Theodora. Unlike the other churches of sixth‐century Ravenna, which are basilicas, San Vitale has an octagonal plan, with a dome carried on eight piers, surrounded by a galleried aisle – a “double‐shell” form. The piers are linked by seven pierced niches with two columns each, the remaining side of the octagon open to the apsed sanctuary; a narthex fronts the building. While this scheme may have its roots in the centralized, niched forms of Roman architecture, the immediate source was almost certainly the architecture of sixth‐century Constantinople, where SS. Sergios and Bacchos has a similar structure based on an octagonal core within a square exterior. San Vitale was consecrated in 547/8, seven years after Ravenna had been retrieved from the Ostrogoths, which may explain its strong connections with the capital, but the patron, Julius Argentarius (thought to be depicted in the mosaic, in the entourage of Justinian) was probably based in Ravenna, having commissioned several other churches there. Bishop Maximian, in office at the consecration, is also shown in the mosaic, but in the conch of the apse it is an earlier bishop, Ecclesius (521–532), who presents a model of the church to Christ. Ecclesius also knew the churches of Constantinople, having visited the city in 525, so the metropolitan form may have been planned from the start.