In the subdued interior of the San Vitale, the mosaics gleam green and gold, sublime against the gloom.
Consecrated ten years after the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople – Justinian's other great architectural masterpiece – the apse mosaics of the San Vitale tell of the triumphant return of imperial authority and religious orthodoxy to a region recently reconquered from barbarian rule.
In the conch of the church (pictured above), above a blue orb of earth set in a shimmering golden firmament, sits Christos Cosmocrator: Christ the ruler of the universe. Youthful and beardless, he clasps the scroll of the apocalypse with one hand (it seven seals still reassuringly intact), while extending a crown of martyrdom to St Vitalis* with the other. To his left the Bishop Ecclesius, who commissioned the construction of the San Vitale, delivers up a model of the church to an angel.
Beneath the conch, two panels of mosaics depict Justinian and Theodora processing towards the altar – not that the imperial couple had ever visited the San Vitale. The emperor, crowned and haloed, bears a paten, while the empress carries a chalice. He is depicted at the head of the army and the clergy, in the company of Bishop Maximianus who consecrated the San Vitale. She is accompanied by a train of ladies-in-waiting, having come a long way from the dancing girl and harlot that she was when she first caught Justinian's eye.
Theodoric and his Ostrogothic line, however, are conspicuous by their absence.
* Vitalis of Milan isn't one of the more colourful characters in the canon. Martyred for his faith in Ravenna, he appears to be best known for having the San Vitale named after him.
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