I saw the most anatomically correct Jesus of my life in Ravenna this morning (see above.) It is in one of the two baptistries in Ravenna. The central mosaic from the second baptistry is pictured below:
The first stop of the morning, though, was to Sant’ Apollinare Nuovo. This church was originally built by Theodoric, the Ostrogoth king, and then rebuilt by Emperor Justinian. I wish I could have floated up high and to examine the facing mosaics up close:
One is a long row of martyrs. They face a long row of virgins:
The virgins end with Mary. They are immediately preceded by the three kings:
One mosaic looks like a gold wall:
You can barely make out darker areas in the gold. These are where figures related to Theodoric were originally placed– Justinian had them “gold washed” out of the mosaic once he was in power. He did add his own portrait, but much closer down at the level of the people:
Another historical event in Ravenna was the death of Dante. He was banished from Florence and ended up in Ravenna, dying of malaria. Famous for writing the Inferno, he was most important for unifying an Italian language, long before there was an Italy. His bones have been move several times, to keep them safe, but we’ve been informed that they really are in this tomb, now:
After viewing the historic art, we had some time on our own in this small and interesting city. Another meal of piadini and gelato!
And then we were off. We’ve been driven to Venice where the “last mile” was by water taxi to our beautiful hotel. We’ve been oriented to the city’s history and some of the grave difficulties it faces in the future. We’ve sipped our spritzes. Tomorrow we explore more.
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