384 Johnson
funerary architecture, and in all cases the arms are used for holding sarcoph-
agi or earlier urns. In the two-storeyed funerary monuments the lower level
is always the burial chamber; the upper level functions as a memorial temple
or chapel.
Other Art in the Mediterranean During Ostrogothic Rule
Theoderic and his successors were not alone in promoting the building and
decoration of churches in Italy during their rule. The bishops of Rome remained
active patrons during this time. Symmachus (498–514) was particularly active,
building several new churches, repairing old ones, and adding oratoria, or
chapels, to important churches such as St Peter’s and St Paul’s.94 One of the
most important works of art from this period is found in the apse decoration
of the church of SS Cosmas and Damian, a church made by converting part of
the Templum Pacis. The decoration of the apse is the earliest surviving exam-
ple of a type found in several early medieval apse programmes in Rome: Christ
is depicted in the centre, descending from heaven in the Second Coming,
flanked by Peter and Paul who present the two titular saints (Figure 14.19). The
patron, Felix IV (526–30) is shown on the far left, holding a model of the church
and St Theodore is depicted on the far right to balance the composition. The
similarity in style and technique of these mosaics to those of the Theoderican
monuments in Ravenna suggests strong artistic ties between the two cities.
Other bishops in Italy carried out their own patronage of similar projects.
To cite one example, Sabinus, bishop of Canosa in Apulia from 514 until his
death in 566, built a new baptistery next to the old cathedral, a new cathedral
complex, and the tetraconch church of San Leucio, originally dedicated to SS
Cosmas and Damian.95
During this period Justinian was engaged in his great building programme,
with additions to the Great Palace and the churches of SS Sergius and Bacchus
and the jewel of 6th-century architecture, Hagia Sophia in Constantinople,
completed in in 537. In Ravenna, Justinian and his wife Theodora were depicted
in mosaics in the church of San Vitale, founded in 526 but largely constructed
after Belisarius had taken the city in 540.
94 Liber Pontificalis, c. 53.6–10.
95 Volpe, “Architecture”, pp. 134–54.