Costanza mosaic program, however, also included subjects common
in Roman funerary art, although they were susceptible to a Christian
interpretation. In one section (FIG. 11-13) of the mosaic in the am-
bulatory vault, for example, are scenes of putti harvesting grapes and
producing wine. (Similar scenes decorate Constantina’s sarcopha-
gus.) A portrait bust is at the center of a rich vine scroll. There is a
second bust in another section of the mosaic vault, but both are
heavily restored, and the identification of the pair as Constantina
and her husband is uncertain. In the Roman world, wine was pri-
marily associated with Bacchus, but for a Christian, the vineyards
brought to mind the wine of the Eucharist and the blood of Christ.
SANTA MARIA MAGGIOREMosaic decoration (see “Mo-
saics,” page 303) played an important role in the interiors of Early
Christian buildings of all types. In churches, mosaics not only pro-
vided a beautiful setting for the Christian liturgy, but also were vehi-
cles for instructing the congregation about biblical stories and Chris-
tian dogma. Old Testament themes are the focus of the extensive
fifth-century mosaic cycle in the nave of the basilican church of Santa
Maria Maggiore in Rome, the first major church in the West dedicated
to the Virgin Mary. Construction of the church began in 432, the year
after Mary had been officially designated as the Mother of God
(Theotokos,“bearer of god” in Greek) at the Council of Ephesus. The
council had been convened to debate whether Mary had given birth to
the man Jesus or to God as man. It ruled that the divine and human
coexisted in Christ and that Mary was indeed the Mother of God.
One of the mosaic panels (FIG. 11-14) in Santa Maria Mag-
giore dramatically represents the parting of Abraham and his nephew
Lot, as set forth in Genesis, the Bible’s opening book. Agreeing to
disagree, Lot leads his family and followers to the right, toward the
city of Sodom, while Abraham heads for Canaan, moving toward a
basilica-like building (perhaps symbolizing the Christian Church)
on the left. Lot’s is the evil choice, and the instruments of the evil
(his two daughters) are in front of him. The figure of the yet-unborn
Isaac, the instrument of good (and, as noted earlier, a prefiguration
of Christ), stands before his father, Abraham.
The cleavage of the two groups is emphatic, and the mosaicist
represented each group using a shorthand device that could be calleda “head cluster,” which had precedents in antiquity and had a long
history in Christian art. The figures engage in a sharp dialogue of
glance and gesture. The wide eyes turn in their sockets, and the en-
larged hands make broad gestures. This kind of simplified motion,
which is characteristic of Late Antique narrative art of both Roman
and Christian subject matter, has great power to communicate with-
out ambiguity. But the Abraham and Lot mosaic also reflects the her-
itage of classical art. The town in the background would not be out of
place in a Pompeian mural (FIG. 10-19,left), and the figures themselves
are modeled in light and dark, cast shadows, and still loom with mas-
sive solidity. Another century had to pass before Western Christian
mosaicists portrayed figures entirely as flat images, rather than as
three-dimensional bodies, finally rejecting the norms of classical art
in favor of a style better suited for a focus on the spiritual instead of
the natural world. Early Christian art, like Late Antique Roman art in
general, vacillates between these two stylistic poles.Ravenna
In the decades after the founding in 324 of Constantinople, the New
Rome in the East, and the death of Constantine in 337, the pace of
Christianization of the Roman Empire quickened. In 380 the em-
peror Theodosius I issued an edict finally establishing Christianity as
the state religion. In 391 he enacted a ban against pagan worship,
and in 394 he abolished the Olympic Games, the enduring symbol of
the classical world and its values. Theodosius died in 395, and impe-
rial power passed to his two sons, Arcadius, who became Emperor of
the East, and Honorius, Emperor of the West. In 404, when the
Visigoths, under their king, Alaric, threatened to overrun Italy from
the northwest, Honorius moved his capital from Milan to Ravenna,
an ancient Roman city (perhaps founded by the Etruscans) near
Italy’s Adriatic coast, some 80 miles south of Venice. In 410, Rome
fell to Alaric, and in 476, Ravenna fell to Odoacer, the first Germanic
king of Italy. Odoacer was overthrown in turn by Theodoric, king of
the Ostrogoths, who established his capital at Ravenna in 493.
Ravenna fell to the Byzantine emperor Justinian in 539, and the sub-
sequent history of the city belongs with that of Byzantium (see
Chapter 12).Architecture and Mosaics 30111-14The parting of Abraham and Lot, nave of
Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome, Italy, 432–440.
Mosaic, 3 4 high.
In this mosaic panel representing the Old Testa-
ment parting of Abraham and Lot, the artist
included the figure of the yet-unborn Isaac because
of his importance as a prefiguration of Christ.1 ft.11-13AChrist as
Sol Invictus, late
third century.