Capital of San Vitale of Ravenna

This capital was part of the architectural sculpture decorating the San Vitale Church in Ravenna. The church was consecrated in 547 by Bishop Maximian, and was the first major Byzantine construction in the city after it was conquered under Justinian (527-565).

The capital has a trapezoid shape, and surmounts one of the columns of the northern wall of the sanctuary. The surfaces that had suffered damage were restored with mortar and paint, which is modern. The four sides of the capital are framed by the same motif: a large, wavy band amid plant motifs. The angles are flat, and each side has an identical decoration: in the middle, strands of foliage intermingle to form five medallions laid out in the shape of a cross.

The abacus of the capital is also sculpted on all four sides. The main side shows a Latin cross in the centre with a point at the intersection of the two bars. On either side of the cross stand two animals, probably lambs, an important symbolic motif. The nether side is decorated with a fluted vessel from which two peacocks are drinking. Only their plumage on their tails and wings is shown. The two lateral sides of the abacus are decorated with two large intermingled branches of acanthus in bas-relief.

Both the capital and the column were sculpted in marble from Proconnese, an island in the Sea of Marmara, where white marble mottled or veined with grey-blue is quarried. This marble, well-known for its high quality since antiquity, was much traded around the Mediterranean. The use of columns of coloured marble during the paleo-Christian era (porphyry, breccia from Thessalia and cipolin from Karystos in Eubea) indicates that besides the Proconnese quarries, there were still other active marble quarries, even if a certain number of columns were actually recycled. However, Proconnese marble definitely predominated for capitals. In Italy, and more specifically in Ravenna, the preference given to this marble is due partly to Theodoric, bent on imitating Constantinople, and partly to the continuous contact of the non-Aryan clergy of Ravenna with the emperor and patriarch of the Byzantine capital. For the same reasons, craftsmen from the city were invited to work in Ravenna. The capitals were sculpted or rough-hewn in Constantinople and then exported to Italy, sometimes accompanied by the sculptors who were to carry out the finishing.

The exportation of this marble throughout the Mediterranean region can be explained by its inherent quality as well as by economic factors. The quarries were close to the sea and to Constantinople; cargo loads of marble could be transported to the capital city at a relatively low cost. The fact that the emperor showed a preference for this type of marble also encouraged its trade.