Procopius and the imperial panels of S. Vitale

The imperial panels in the church of S. Vitale at Ravenna are perhaps the most famous of all Byzantine mosaics. The two panels face each other, one on each side of the apse. The left panel [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED] shows the Byzantine emperor Justinian (r. 527-65) in the midst of his attendants. The right panel [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 2 OMITTED] shows the empress Theodora (d. 548), Justinian's consort, similarly attended. Each member of the imperial pair wears sumptuous purple imperial robes and a crown and is distinguished by a halo. Each also carries gifts for the church, Justinian a gold paten and Theodora a gold chalice. Each group appears to be advancing toward the center of the apse across a green floor between two-jeweled gold columns, which in Justinian's panel support a coffered ceiling and in Theodora's support a carved egg and dart cornice.

While the wall behind Justinian's scene is plain gold, Theodora's scene has a more elaborate background: a niche with a shell-shaped conch directly behind the figure of the empress, at the left an open doorway hung with a curtain behind a small gushing fountain on a pedestal, and at the right a section of gold ground with a drapery hanging above it. The emperor has to his right two prominent dignitaries wearing white mantles with purple tablia over short white tunics embroidered with shoulder ornaments. To their right stands a group of guardsmen carrying spears and a shield. To the emperor's left is another white-robed dignitary squeezed into a narrow space, to his left a bishop labeled Maximianus carrying a gold cross, and to Maximian's left two deacons, one carrying a Gospel book and the other a censer. Theodora has two eunuchs to her right, one of whom touches the curtain in front of the doorway as if to lift it, and to her left two prominent noblewomen and a group of five ladies-in-waiting.

Inside the church, in the overall context of the decoration of the sanctuary, these panels are located in the apse's hemicycle, which is otherwise occupied mainly by three large windows [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 3 OMITTED]. The panels are integrated into the larger apse decoration by the simple and standard means of ornamental borders and decorative architecture. The borders include a ubiquitous pearl and jewel band and a scalloped black and white one. The bejeweled columns used at the sides of each panel reappear in a slightly larger size between the windows of the apse (not illustrated).

In the simplest sense, the intended purpose of these panels seems clear. It is to glorify the emperor Justinian and his empress, Theodora. In a wider sense, the mosaics may be conceived as a glorification of the whole institution of imperial autocracy, in Italy and throughout the world. At this time Justinian was vigorously expanding his empire beyond the lands he had inherited in the eastern Mediterranean. In 535, just after conquering northern Africa from the Vandals, the emperor sent an expedition under Belisarius, his most capable general, to take Italy from the Ostrogoths. In 540, after Belisarius secured the surrender of the Ostrogothic king Vitigis and the Ostrogoths' capital at Ravenna, he held all of Italy except for a few Ostrogothic outposts. At that point Justinian recalled Belisarius to fight the Persians in the East. The Ostrogoths then rallied and retook much of Italy before the Byzantines finally completed the conquest in 561.

The scholarly consensus is that these mosaics represent an imaginary procession, given that Justinian, Theodora, and Maximian, the archbishop of Ravenna, who is labeled in the mosaic, were never together in the same place after Maximian's consecration in 546. The figures apart from Justinian, Theodora, and Maximian are generally thought to be unidentifiable, though some tentative suggestions have been made for two or three others.(1) Various scholars have added theoretical refinements about the precise relationships to be inferred among the imperial couple, their retinue, Maximian, the Church, Italy, and the world. Such interpretations, whether right or wrong, have seemed to require neither a close examination of the condition of the mosaics nor any further identification of the figures in them. After all, the mosaics must be essentially genuine, and the central figures can hardly represent anyone other than Justinian and Theodora, who reigned when the church was consecrated and were contemporaries of Archbishop Maximian.

Four recent and contrasting views illustrate how complex the task of interpreting these panels can be.(2) Ernst Kitzinger, following a suggestion made over thirty years earlier by Gerhart Rodenwaldt, has emphasized the importance in Justinian's panel of Archbishop Maximian, and by extension of the Church hierarchy. Kitzinger bases his argument on Maximian's prominent place next to the emperor and the fact that he alone is identified by an inscription.(3) By contrast, Henry Maguire has seen in the same panel a comparison of Justinian and his courtiers to Christ and his Apostles. Maguire counts twelve figures attending Justinian and draws a parallel with the mosaic medallions of Christ and the apostles on the arch leading into S. Vitale's sanctuary.(4)