exterior, Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy
Image details
Contributor:
B.O'Kane / Alamy Stock PhotoImage ID:
EJY9RWFile size:
57.8 MB (3.1 MB Compressed download)Releases:
Model - no | Property - noDo I need a release?Dimensions:
5417 x 3730 px | 45.9 x 31.6 cm | 18.1 x 12.4 inches | 300dpiDate taken:
15 March 2015Location:
Ravenna, ItalyMore information:
The Basilica of San Vitale is a church in Ravenna, Italy, and one of the most important examples of early Christian Byzantine art and architecture in western Europe. The building is styled an "ecclesiastical basilica" in the Roman Catholic Church, though it is not of architectural basilica form. It is one of eight Ravenna structures inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The church was begun by Bishop Ecclesius in 526, when Ravenna was under the rule of the Ostrogoths and completed by the 27th Bishop of Ravenna, Maximian, in 547 preceding the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna. The architect of the church is unknown. The construction of the church was sponsored by a Greek banker, Julius Argentarius, of whom very little is known, except that he also sponsored the construction of the Basilica of Sant' Apollinare in Classe at around the same time. (A donor portrait of the banker may appear among the courtiers on the Justinian mosaic.) The final cost amounted to 26, 000 solidi (gold pieces). The church has an octagonal plan. The building combines Roman elements: the dome, shape of doorways, and stepped towers; with Byzantine elements: polygonal apse, capitals, and narrow bricks. The church is most famous for its wealth of Byzantine mosaics, the largest and best preserved outside of Constantinople. The church is of extreme importance in Byzantine art, as it is the only major church from the period of the Emperor Justinian I to survive virtually intact to the present day.