The upper level of the left wall has full-length figures of two evangelists and their symbols: John with his eagle left and Luke with his ox right. Below their feet are ducks and other water fowl. The lunette on the right wall centers on a large altar, a visual parallel to the table on the opposite wall.
Here Abel left and Melchizedek right offer their sacrifices to God. Abel offers a spotless lamb Genesis and Melchizedek offers bread Genesis The area left of the lunette shows Moses watching the flocks of his father-in-law below and untying his sandals before the burning bush above.
On the right is the Prophet Isaiah. As on the other side, the side panels of the upper level depict two evangelists: Matthew with winged man symbol and Mark with lion symbol. They are depicted against a grassy landscape with aquatic creatures, including a heron and a tortoise, beneath their feet.
The presbytery vault is richly decorated with mosaics in green, blue and gold, with vine tendrils and small animals. Each of the four sections of the vault has a standing angel in a white robe, who together support a central medallion of the Lamb of God against the backdrop of a starry sky.
Above the arch on the back wall of the presbytery are two flying angels holding a medallion with eight rays projecting from an Alpha, flanked by the City of Jerusalem representing the Jewish Church and the City of Bethlehem representing the Gentile Church. San Vitale's apse mosaic dates from to AD.
Giotto, Arena Scrovegni Chapel part 4. Next lesson. Allen Farber. Created by Smarthistory. Google Classroom Facebook Twitter. Sort by: Top Voted. San Vitale, Ravenna. Teil Wiesbaden, Vitale on Flickr - Photo Sharing! Loyola University Chicago Medieval Studies. Come Visit. There is depiction of a doorway with a curtain on the left with a marble fountain in front of it. A beardless official, probably a eunuch, is depicted wearing a white tunic and gold chlamys with purple tablion; he opens the curtain as he looks towards the empress.
The next figure, also probably a eunuch, is depicted wearing a white tunic and gold chlamys with purple tablion and an embroidered segmenta. The second eunuch, Theodora, and a female attendant stand under a marble niche with a shell-shaped conch.
Empress Theodora, who holds a gold chalice, is depicted wearing a white underdress, a purple chlamys with images of the Three Magi offering gifts to Christ , jeweled shoes, a jeweled collar, an emerald necklace, earrings of emerald, pearl, and sapphire , and a jeweled crown with long pearl pendilia. Her face is narrow and she has a halo. There are seven women on the right, with the first two given more space than the other five. It is possible that the woman on the right of Theodora, Antonina, the wife of Belisarius, and the other woman is Joannina, her only daughter.
The faces of the women, who are not very differentiated except by the wide variety of designs and colors of their clothing, have passed through another doorway, with has a curtain of red, white, and blue. At the center of the half dome of the apse is a beardless Christ seated on a blue globe. He wears purple, gold-bordered robe and has a halo with a gemmed cross surrounding his head.
He holds a scroll closed with the seven seals of the Apocalypse in his left hand and extends a crown towards the martyr St. Vitalis with his right hand. There are red and blue clouds in a gold background above his head, while beneath the globe are the Four Rivers of Paradise.
Christ is flanked by two angels dressed in white with staffs in the crooks of their arms. They gesture towards the outermost figures St. Vitalis is depicted as a gray-haired man with a halo, dressed in Byzantine court costume, while Bishop Ecclesius is depicted as a man with graying hair dressed in purple chasuble his tonsure is a medieval modification. He holds a model of the Church of San Vitale, which offers to Christ.
All of the figures stand on a rocky landscape with lilies and roses. The border of the apse is decorated with intersecting cornucopia, with a Chi Rho monogram held by eagles at its apex.
There are two more borders, one with medallions and leaves with a green background, and another with blue and green gems and pearls with a red background. The strips of the windows of the apse have gold columns encrusted with gems and mother of pearl, which are also depicted in the each side of panels with the imperial processions. At the center of the vault of presbytery is the Lamb of God in central medallion, supported by angel standing a blue globe on each side.
The vault is divided into four sections, separated by bands decorated with peacocks, flowers and fruits. Each of the triangular planes has alternating green and gold backgrounds filled with acanthus scrolls inhabited by birds in the gold backgrounds and animals in the green backgrounds, which taken together illustrated Revelation Above the half dome of the apse is a pair of winged angels, holding an eight-arm cross, while similar pairs of angels are on the northern and southern walls of the presbytery, holding a medallion with a gemmed cross with Alpha and Omega on each arm.
On each side of the angels are Jerusalem and Bethlehem, depicted as walled cities decorated with gems and pearls. On each side of triple-arched windows are grapevines emerging from large baskets, while above them are acanthus vines emerging from chalices.
A similar motif is found on the lunettes above the upper arcades of the presbytery. The many figures in the presbytery appear in the Epistle to the Hebrews, which describes Moses, Abraham, Abel, Melchisedek, and the Prophets as types of the priesthood of Christ.
The lunette on the north wall has two scenes from the life of Abraham, the Feeding of Three Strangers Genesis and the Sacrifice of Isaac Genesis The majority of the lunette is taken up by the scenes of feeding the strangers, who depicted wearing white and with gold halos, seated on a table with three loaves of bread inscribed with crosses. Two of the strangers raise their hands in blessing, while the third gestures to the bread. Abraham, depicted with white hair and beard wearing short brown tunic, is on the other side of the tree, offers a cooked calf to the strangers.
On the right side of the lunette is the Sacrifice of Isaac, which depicts Abraham wearing a white robes, raising a sword over his son Isaac, who wears a short brown tunic while bound and kneeling on an altar. The Hand of God is depicted among red and blue clouds, gesturing to Abraham to sacrifice a white ram at his feat rather than his son.
All of the scenes in the lunette take place on one green landscape which has lilies and roses along with bushes and rock formations. On the left side of the lunette is Jeremiah labeled IEREMIA , depicted with white haired and bearded, standing with a open scroll next to a tower with a crown atop it.
Below his feet is a crowd represented the Israelites at the foot of Mt. The lunette on the south wall has an altar with a golden chalice and Eucharistic bread at the center; on the left Abel dressed in skins with a scarlet cloak raises a lamb, and on the right the priest-king Melchisedek haloed, wearing eastern-looking garments holds up bread. They stand on a green landscape which has lilies and roses. Behind Abel is a hut similar to the one in which Sarah stands, while behind Melchisedek is a representation of a temple, with columns flanking a door and a superstructure like a basilica.
On the left Moses is depicted untying his sandal, looking over his shoulder to the Hand of God, with burning bushes on each side. Below is another depiction of Moses with three sheep; he feeds one sheep with his right hand and holds a scroll in his left hand. The four evangelists are depicted on the upper zones of the presbytery.
On the left side of the southern wall is Matthew, sits in a landscape next to his desk and a capsa of scrolls writing in a codex, in an illegible script possibly intended to be Hebrew as he looks a winged man, who gestures towards him. In the foreground of each landscape are rivers, which might represent the Four Rivers of Paradise. There are busts of the apostles on the triumphal arch.
At the center of the triumphal arch is Christ, depicted as bearded, holding a book, wearing purple, and set against a gold background, with a cross-inscribed halo.
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