Ravenna as a Capital: Art and Display as Discourse in Late Antiquity and Beyond

269 Pages·2017·7.17 MB·English

by  Thomas, Brittany M.

Ravenna as a Capital: Art and Display as
Discourse
in Late Antiquity and Beyond

Thesis submitted for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
at the University of Leicester

By
Brittany Marie Thomas

School of Archaeology and Ancient History
University of Leicester
2018
Abstract

Title: Ravenna as a Capital: Art and Display as Discourse in Late Antiquity and Beyond
Student: Brittany M. Thomas

Ravenna is renowned for its collection of exceptionally well-preserved fifth and sixth
century mosaics. As a body of data, these mosaics and the buildings which house them
are generally accessible and easy to view, making them widely used in the study of Late
Antiquity and no secret to modern tourists. However, numerous analyses of Ravenna’s
artwork have taken for granted that access to it might not have been so straightforward in
other historic periods. This thesis seeks to answer new questions about ‘old’ data in order
to provide a critical examination of the relationship between Ravenna’s historic and
modern audiences. This is achieved first through an archaeological and architectural
survey of the late antique cityscape during Ravenna’s life as the later Roman, Ostrogothic,
and early Byzantine capital (c. AD 400-600). This survey is accompanied by re-visioning
the way ancient viewers were able to access and receive certain imagery. Second, it
analyses how we ‘curate’ different forms of display (buildings, monuments, artwork) for
today’s tourists in a UNESCO city. Many of the assumptions about modern viewership
began with the Grand Tour and became more solidified in Italy in the nineteenth century
with Italian unification and the creation of regional offices in charge of conservation and
restoration. Drawing on gaze theory, sociological theories of space and place, and a large
bibliography of art historical analysis, this thesis draws conclusions about how ‘viewers’
have helped create both scholarship and public knowledge over the longue durée, and
how buildings often contextualise social and personal interaction with artwork.

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Acknowledgements

Though it had been my wish to glide in my little boat by the edge of the
peaceful shore and, as a certain writer says, to catch little fishes from
the pools of the ancients, you, brother Castalius, bid me set my sails
toward the deep.
Jordanes
Preface, Getica

Jordanes perfectly captures the sentiment of acknowledgements in the beginning of his
Getica (Gothic History) when he thanked his friend Castalius for imploring him to write
it. A necessary ‘Thank You’ goes out to everyone who has bid me set my sails toward
deeper water these last many years. First and foremost to my supervisor, Prof Neil
Christie, for his endless patience and kindness, and for always making sure I’ve had
enough snacks. Thank you also to my second supervisor Dr Andrew Merrills and my
advisory panel Deirdre O’Sullivan and Dr Sarah Scott for their helpful guidance
throughout the writing process. My thanks go to my examiners Prof Liz James (Sussex)
and Dr Mary Harlow for their insightful comments and overseeing my viva. I am
incredibly grateful to Dr April Harper and Dr Sallie Han, among other SUNY Oneonta
faculty, who encouraged me to apply for graduate school in the first place.
Travel funding for parts of this project was provided by the Graduate Researcher
Development fund at the University of Leicester. My thanks go to Prof Andrea Augenti
and the staff at the University of Bologna’s School of History library in Ravenna for
aiding me during my stay and putting up with my rather poor spoken Italian.
For photographs and permissions: Thank you to the staff and collections specialists for
their long distance support from the Cornell University Library (New York), the Brooklyn
Museum (New York), The Courtauld Institute of Art (London), and the archive
collections at Sagrada Familia (Barcelona). Many thanks to the individual photographers
cited in this thesis who are supporting open access by graciously making their works
available to the public through Wikimedia Commons.
For his comments and insight into various parts of my research, thank you to Dr Denis
Sami. I am grateful to Dr Eleftheria Paliou for taking the time to explain her research to
me and for permission to use one of her maps (with my apologies for my poor
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understanding of Autocad and ArchGIS). And a very big thank you to Prof Rosemary
Sweet for pointing me in the direction of many valuable Grand Tour sources and
providing the basis for part of my research.
This entire process would not have been doable without the support of friends and
colleagues I made here in Leicester (too many of you to name!), but thank you especially
to Sarah Newstead and Foster Smith, Matthew Mandich, Bori Nyiri, Kelly Reed, Chantal
Bielmann, Jodie Hannis, and Phil Hughes.
To my found family (here and abroad), and to Mom and Mario, thank you for loving me
and supporting me through what have been some of the most difficult years of my life.
Finally, to my partner Sergio Gonzalez Sanchez, fellow academic and all around beautiful
human: thank you for making the word ‘partner’ meaningful in so many ways.

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Table of Contents

1.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1
1.2. Present-Day Ravenna: A UNESCO City .............................................................. 2
1.3. Questions and Materials ........................................................................................ 9
1.3.1. Ravenna’s Archaeology ............................................................................... 12
1.3.2. Cultural Tourism and a Changing Ravenna ................................................. 13
1.4. Methods and Approaches to Viewership in the Past........................................... 15
1.4.1. Method One: Agnellus as a Tour Guide ...................................................... 15
1.4.2. Method Two: Engaging with Visual Material ............................................. 18
1.5. Organisation of Thesis ........................................................................................ 20

2.1. Introduction: Theorising Art, Eyes, and Institutions ........................................... 23
2.2. The ‘Anthropology’ of Art .................................................................................. 24
2.2.1. Iconology: an Anthropology of Art? ............................................................ 29
2.2.2. Visual Culture .............................................................................................. 31
2.3. Finding the viewers: A History of ‘the Gaze’ ..................................................... 33
2.3.1. Reader-Response Frameworks in Archaeology ........................................... 37
2.3.2. Text and Images ........................................................................................... 42
2.3.3. Visual Anthropology for the Tourist Gaze .................................................. 45
2.4. Concluding Remarks: Images and Viewing in Late Antique and Early Medieval
Contexts ...................................................................................................................... 50
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3.1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 56
3.2. Ravenna’s First Historian: Andrea Agnellus ...................................................... 57
3.3. Medieval to Early Modern Writing ..................................................................... 60
3.4. Modern Scholarship ............................................................................................ 61

4.1. Introduction: Identifying a Capital ...................................................................... 66
4.1.1. The Fabric of the late Roman City ............................................................... 68
4.1.1.1. Imperial Structures: ............................................................................... 70
4.1.1.2. Episcopal structures: ............................................................................. 74
4.2. Ravenna: Episcopal Capital ................................................................................ 79
4.3. Imagining Late Roman Ravenna ......................................................................... 82
4.4. Settling and Governing Ravenna under the Ostrogoths ...................................... 86
4.4.1. The Arian Episcopal Centre ......................................................................... 89
4.5. Urban Renewal under Theoderic ........................................................................ 93
4.5.1. The Palace-Church Complex ....................................................................... 94
4.6. Discussion: Performance in Late Fifth- and Early Sixth-Century Ravenna ..... 104
4.7. Conclusion: A Christian Capital ....................................................................... 111

5.1. Introduction: Between imperium and sacerdotum ............................................ 113
5.1.1. Ravenna’s Role in Italy .............................................................................. 114
5.2. Churches in the landscape in Byzantine Ravenna and Classe .......................... 118
5.2.1. Locating the Cult of Saints ........................................................................ 118
5.2.2. Benefactors: Julianus Argentarius and his Churches ................................. 120
5.2.3. Bishops, Saints, Clergy: Accessing the Divine in Ravenna’s Churches .... 123
5.3. Case Study: Bishop’s Spaces for a Bishop’s City............................................. 125
5.3.1. San Vitale ................................................................................................... 126
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5.3.1.1. Rereading the Imperial panels ............................................................ 130
5.3.2. The Archbishop’s chapel (St. Andrew) in the Episcopium ....................... 137
5.3.3. Reconciliation of the Ostrogothic ‘Arian’ Churches under Archbishop
Agnellus (556-559) ............................................................................................... 141
5.4. Epilogue? The Holy Roman Empire ................................................................. 148
5.5. Discussion: Mapping the Sacred in Byzantine Basilicas .................................. 150
5.5.1. Seeing is Believing? ................................................................................... 151
5.5.2. Relics and Iconoclasm ............................................................................... 158
5.6. Concluding Remarks ......................................................................................... 162

6.1. Introduction ....................................................................................................... 165
6.2. Ravenna in the Grand Tour ............................................................................... 168
6.2.1. Period Sources ........................................................................................... 169
6.2.2. The Road to Ravenna ................................................................................. 172
6.2.3. Points of Interest ........................................................................................ 175
6.2.4. What’s in a Name? ..................................................................................... 184
6.3. A New Visual Culture: Mass Production in the late Nineteenth Century ........ 187
6.4. The Case for ‘Original’ Monuments’ in Italian Heritage Practice ................... 194
6.4.1. Corrado Ricci and Ravenna ....................................................................... 197
6.5. Conclusion: Reading Modern Sources .............................................................. 207

7.1. Concluding Remarks: The Role of Cultural Capitals through Time ................ 212
7.2. Heritage in Italy Today / Directions of Future Research .................................. 217
7.2.1. Wider Implications ..................................................................................... 220

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List of Figures
Figure 1.1 The imperial panels of San Vitale: Justinian panel ........................................ 4
Figure 1.2 The imperial panels of San Vitale: Theodora panel ........................................ 5
Figure 1.3 A Lonely Planet guide map of Ravenna. ......................................................... 6
Figure 1.4 Tourists in Sant’Apollinare Nuovo ................................................................. 7
Figure 1.5 UNESCO Periodic Report from Ravenna, Cycle II, 2014. ............................. 8
Figure 1.6 ‘Mosaic Perfume’on sale. .............................................................................. 14
Figure 1.7 Theodosius II (Tim Curry) and general Aetius (Powers Boothe) dine together
in the imperial palace in Constantinople. ................................................................ 19
Figure 2.1 Tourists admiring Theoderic’s Tomb in Ravenna. ........................................ 48
Figure 3.1 A row of typical guidebooks in any number of shops in Ravenna. ............... 57
Figure 4.1 Map of late Roman Ravenna, c. AD 480 ...................................................... 70
Figure 4.2 Neon’s sarcophagus located in San Francesco. ............................................. 78
Figure 4.3 The original crypt of the Church of the Holy Apostles ................................. 79
Figure 4.4 Port of Classe with Ravenna in the background, VI century ........................ 87
Figure 4.5 Map of Ostrogothic Ravenna ........................................................................ 91
Figure 4.6 Plan of Theoderic’s palace and surrounding buildings ................................. 96
Figure 4.7 Interior of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo ................................................................ 99
Figure 4.8 Palatium mosaic, south wall of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo ............................. 100
Figure 4.9 Classe mosaic, north wall ............................................................................ 100
Figure 4.10 Palatium mosaic, view of modified archway ............................................ 101
Figure 4.11 Hypothetical reconstruction of figures erased from the palatium mosaic . 102
Figure 4.12 Ceiling of the dome of the Neonian Baptistery ......................................... 107
Figure 4.13 Ceiling of the dome of the Arian Baptistery ............................................. 108
Figure 4.14 Ground plan of the Orthodox Baptistery ................................................... 109
Figure 4.15 Ground plans of the Arian Cathedral and Baptistery ................................ 111
Figure 5.1 Map of early Byzantine Ravenna c. AD 600 ............................................... 114
Figure 5.2 Floor plan of San Vitale .............................................................................. 127
Figure 5.3 Reconstruction of San Vitale during its construction .................................. 128
Figure 5.4 Apse mosaic San Vitale. .............................................................................. 131
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Figure 5.5 Visual integration map of San Vitale .......................................................... 135
Figure 5.6 Palatium mosai after recociliation. .............................................................. 142
Figure 5.7 Nave mosaic Sant'Apollinare Nuovo after reconciliation ........................... 143
Figure 5.8 Restored mosaic head of a man in imperial dress on the back wall of
Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, labelled ‘IUSTINIAN’ by its restorers. ......................... 146
Figure 5.9 Floor plan Sant’Apollinare in Classe .......................................................... 154
Figure 5.10 Sant’Apollinare in Classe. Interior view, facing the altar. ........................ 155
Figure 5.11 The tomb and altar of St. Apollinaris ........................................................ 156
Figure 5.12 Apse mosaic of Sant’Apollinare in Classe ................................................ 160
Figure 5.13 A reconstruction of a mass in Sant’Apollinare in Classe .......................... 163
Figure 6.1 Part of a 1799 map of Italy .......................................................................... 174
Figure 6.2 Interior of Ravenna’s modern cathedral, view toward the apse .................. 177
Figure 6.3 Sketch of Theoderic’s tomb by Giovanni Battista Piranesi. ....................... 178
Figure 6.4 A modern view of Theoderic’s Mausoleum. ............................................... 179
Figure 6.5 The Martyrdom of St. Vitalis by Federico Boracci. .................................... 183
Figure 6.6 Engraving of the interior of Sant’Apollinare by E. Therond ...................... 188
Figure 6.7 Photograph of San Vitale 1865-1895 .......................................................... 189
Figure 6.8 Engraving of the interior of San Vitale by Ph. Benoist. .............................. 190
Figure 6.9 A typical stereoview card sold by Underwood & Underwood. .................. 192
Figure 6.10 Girl using a stereoscope. ........................................................................... 192
Figure 6.11 Photograph by Luigi Ricci, c. 1880 showing the Arian Baptistery ........... 193
Figure 6.12 Photo Sant’Apollinare Nuovo c. 1869-1895 ............................................. 197
Figure 6.13 Portrait of Corrado Ricci by Ettore Titio. .................................................. 198
Figure 6.14 Engraving by Giuseppe Barberis (c. 1840-1917), exterior of Ravenna’s
cathedral from the back. ........................................................................................ 200
Figure 6.15 The ceiling of the dome in San Vitale ....................................................... 201
Figure 6.16 The tinted windows around the dome of San Vitale ................................. 202
Figure 6.17 View toward the apse of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo 1950-1968. .................. 206
Figure 6.18 View toward the apse of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in 2016. ....................... 206
Figure 7.1 Photo of the interior of Gaudi’s studio outside of the Sagrada Familia ...... 210
Figure 7.2 Sagrada Familia in 1925, completion of the St. Barnabus Belltower ......... 211
Figure 7.3 ‘If all of the churches in Ravenna grew again’, by Dario Fo (1999). ......... 215
Figure 7.4 Street sign: local hotels in Ravenna embracing their famous heritage. ....... 219
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Introduction: Touring
Ravenna from Agnellus to UNESCO

1.1. Introduction
Ravenna has attracted the interest of travellers and writers as far back as the Grand Tour.
Historians have been attempting to succinctly tell the city’s story since the ninth century
AD, when a young Ravennate priest, Andreas Agnellus composed his Book of Pontiffs
chronicling the lives of Ravenna’s bishops from the time of St. Peter. Ravenna is the
famous city of Dante’s exile, the headquarters of prolific Romantics like Lord Byron and
Oscar Wilde, and the dour industrial backdrop of post-fascist Italian cinema. Since the
1960s it has been the subject of scholarly interest in late antique art and architecture and
is a city so well published that one might wonder what more there is to say. Ravenna
boasts of some Late Antiquity’s best preserved churches and finest mosaics, making it a
must-see UNESCO destination.

Yet, despite this fame and scholarly attention, questions remain: much of the city, beyond
its churches, remains undiscovered; the demographics of the capital remain uncertain;
and the ways in which people experienced this environment is only partially understood.
This means analysing a set of relatively well-known, ‘old’ data and interpreting them in
a new light. In the last twenty years the disciplines of Art History, Archaeology, and
Anthropology (among other disciplines) have been converging onto topics within ‘Visual
Culture’ that explore aspects of visualisation, sensory experience, and viewer
participation (both in antiquity and at present). This thesis addresses the nature of public
display and viewer reception in the capital of the Later Roman and Early Byzantine
Empires in the fifth and sixth centuries AD, and then how these images and modes of
display have been received since the Grand Tour up to and beyond Ravenna’s adoption
as a UNESCO site.

Ravenna was the focal point of state and episcopal patronage across the last century of
Western Roman rule after its creation as a capital in 402. It remained a capital and focus
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