12-10Justinian, Bishop Maximianus, and attendants, mosaic on the north wall of the apse, San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy, ca. 547.
San Vitale’s mosaics reveal the new Byzantine aesthetic. Justinian is foremost among the weightless and speechless frontal
figures hovering before the viewer, their positions in space uncertain.
12-11Theodora and attendants, mosaic on the south wall of the apse, San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy, ca. 547.
Justinian’s counterpart on the opposite wall is the empress Theodora, a powerful figure at the Byzantine court. Neither she nor
Justinian ever visited Ravenna. San Vitale’s mosaics are proxies for the absent sovereigns.