and Montfaucon makes out from it the words Titus Cornelius Nepos, and Zirardini, an antiquary of Ravenna, Petrus Episcopus. You will conceive, that inscriptions which may be interpreted so differently, are perfect enigmas, from which nothing can be learned; but it appears to me that both these learned men are decidedly wrong, since the monogram contains an F, and no E. The pulpit of this church is of a single piece of marble, and seems to have been cut out of one drum of a fluted column, about five feet and a half in diameter. It is supposed to have been some ornamental or monumental column, for Ravenna does not boast any ancient edifice which would require a column of that size.
San Giovanni della Sagra was built in 425 by Galla Placidia, in consequence of a vow she had made, when, having been overtaken by a storm in returning from Constantinople, she was saved from shipwreck by the intercession of St. John the evangelist. After it was built, the lady sought far and wide for some relic of the tutelar saint, but in vain. Her confessor, St. Barbaziano, proposed that they should pass a night in prayer in the new church, in order to obtain of the Lord by miracle, what human means had failed to procure. During the night St. John appeared in pontifical vestments, with a censer in his hand, incensing the temple and the altar; St. Barbaziano saw him first, and knowing him for the beloved disciple of our Saviour, pointed him out to the empress, who with great joy ran to throw herself on her knees before him, and to embrace his feet. The saint immediately vanished, leaving behind him the sandal of his right foot. The empress having thus obtained the desired relic, deposited it somewhere in the church, but the precise spot is unknown. The story is represented in sculpture over the principal entrance, and as this doorway is a production of the pointed architecture of the thirteenth century, we may obtain an approximation to the date of the legend. I admire, however, the modesty which refrained from producing the sacred relic. The church itself was of the usual form, with marble columns, and a great niche adorned with mosaics; but the mosaics are gone, and the nave has been a good deal modernized.
San Francesco is another church of the same disposition, which has undergone a similar treatment; this seems also of the time of Galla Placidia. Sant Apollinare Nuovo, which deserves the first place among these buildings for its magnitude and decorations, is a foundation of Theodoric, but the choir is comparatively modern. It has, according to Beltrami, the sort of portico called Ardica, a word derived from the Greek ναρθεξ, but I do not understand precisely in what its peculiarity consists. It is formed by means of groined arches supported on columns. Internally, this church seems to have been in every respect more highly finished than any of the others. The windows are more numerous, and there is a continued moulding under them. The nave terminates in a large ornamented arch, and the walls are adorned with mosaics, some of the heads in which have a good deal of character. One of these mosaics represents the front of the palace of Theodoric; three large, but unequal arches in the centre, support a pediment, and a range of smaller and lower arches extends on each side. All the arches rest on columns, and veils hang between the columns. This has no sort of resemblance to the fragment still remaining, of which I shall speak by and by, but perhaps that was no part of the front.
The last church of this style in date, and the last I shall give you any account of, is that of St. Apollinaris, at Classe, about three miles from Ravenna. Classis seems to have been the station of the Roman fleet, and to have formed, with Ravenna proper and Cæsarea, one great city. It was adorned, we are told, with magnificent public edifices, and with numerous churches. Nothing, however, now remains, except this church, with its bell-tower; and a few of the buildings of the convent. St. Apollinaris was the beloved disciple of St. Peter. He was the apostle and teacher of the people of Ravenna, and the church was built upon the ruins of the temple of Apollo. It is a pity that this gives a sort of double occasion to the name, and throws a doubt on both stories. The building was erected by order of Justinian, and consecrated by the archbishop St. Maximian in the year 549. The columns which support the nave are of very beautiful Greek marble. The windows are in pairs, few and small; each pair is seen externally in an arched recess, of which there is a series, both in the clerestory, and in the aisles below. The latter were probably connected with the portico, which returned along the sides of the church, as well as occupying the front, but these lateral parts are now destroyed. To return to the inside: the columns are valuable for their materials alone: they are badly worked, and the capitals are very rude and clumsy imitations of those of the Composite order. The height of the nave is about a quarter more than the width; and the proportion is very good. The aisles are very wide, and I believe this contributes to the light and agreeable appearance of the building. In the nave, the walls are mostly whitewashed; but the tribune or apsis is covered with mosaics, as is the arch in front of it. Whitewash is not an agreeable finish anywhere, but this disposition of it is at least better than that which I have complained of in the Florentine churches. There is a representation of the transfiguration in the tribune, which, if it do not in itself possess much merit either of design or execution, is nevertheless curious, as an attempt of that period, to express an historical fact, instead of the mere upright unemployed figures of saints usually exhibited in these mosaics. Indeed, Ravenna is quite the place to study the architecture and painting of these two centuries, but I doubt if it can shew any sculpture. Sant Apollinare is rich in sarcophagi and inscribed marbles, but I allowed myself there much too short a time. In fact, I almost always have to lament, after leaving a city of much interest, that I had passed through it too hastily.
I shall now proceed to some other religious edifices, in which this general arrangement was not observed. The Baptistery is an octagonal building almost covered with mosaics, and containing also some bas-reliefs in stucco, perhaps not of the same date. It has a number of little columns of pavonazetto, bigio antico, and marmo greco, taken from ancient edifices. Externally, there is a small square opening above the door, which is also square-headed; and above, each face presents two double-headed windows. The date of the building is supposed to be that of the ancient cathedral now destroyed, that is, the latter end of the fourth century: the mosaic is attributed to an archbishop Neone, who lived about the year 430. It covers the dome, as well as most of the walls. The baptism of our Saviour in the Jordan by St. John, is represented on the former, and the river-god seems also to be introduced into the composition. As is usual in the ancient baptisteries, there was originally preparation for baptism by immersion, but like most of the other buildings at Ravenna, it has been filled up two or three feet, in order to be above the water, of which the soil is full. It seems at first sight as if the removal of the sea from Ravenna should have made the ground drier, but a little reflection will convince us that the contrary must be the case, as the sea continuing on the same level, the water has farther to run before it can discharge itself, and for water thus to drain itself through the earth, a considerable inclination is necessary.
The Church of Santa Maria in Cosmedim, or at least the ancient part of it, was also a baptistery. It was appropriated to the use of the Arians, between whom and the Catholics, or rather the Athanasians, there was nothing in common. The lower part has been modernized, but the mosaic of the dome still remains. On this also is represented the Baptism of our Saviour, with the right hand of the baptist on his head, as if to press him gently into the water. This and other mosaics at Ravenna have been published by Campini, Vet. Monim.
The Church of San Vitale is another octagonal building which was quite the boast of its age. It was begun by Julianus Argentarius, in conjunction with Saint Ecclesio, who lived about 534, and consecrated by St. Maximian, who lived in the middle of the sixth century. Eight piers support as many arches; between the piers are semicircular recesses of two stories, each story having two columns, between which and the principal piers are three arches. The spaces between these columns, on the lower part, open into the side aisles, in the upper, into a gallery. Above the principal arches, the building becomes circular, and terminates in a dome, which for the purpose of lightness is constructed of empty earthen pots. I have already mentioned some instances of this sort of work at Rome; there are other examples at Ravenna, but this is the most perfect, and the most interesting. The pots are of two sorts: those forming the dome are small and twisted; and beginning horizontally, have the point of one inserted in the mouth of the preceding, in a continued spiral. The others, which partially fill the spandrils, are larger, twisted only at the point, and placed vertically. The form of the lower part of the building, and consequently of the general circuit of the edifice, appears to be irregular; and the ancient entrance opposite the recess for the altar, having been shut up on the erection of the annexed monastery, the present is disadvantageously opened on one side. The building is highly, but unequally enriched with marbles and historical mosaics; and contains some ancient bas-reliefs and inscriptions. Several monograms are sculptured on the impost blocks, the search after whose meaning has long been the amusement of the antiquaries of Ravenna. Most of them however still remain without even a probable guess at the explanation. The lower columns of the seven semicircular recesses are of Greek marble, and very well wrought, except two or three; all the upper ones are ill executed. We may be sure that those which are well formed were taken from older buildings, but not quite so certain that all the ill-made ones were formed originally for this. The effect of this whimsical architecture is very striking. The architect has produced a great deal of beauty quite out of all the usual rules; not so much perhaps, as if he had employed his taste and talents in a more correct style, but still in sufficient degree to make his work an object deserving the study of future architects, which a handsomer building might not have been. Singularity often merits examination, when it by no means deserves imitation.
A little church in the shape of a cross, dedicated to Sts. Nazarus and Celsus, forms the Sepulchre of Galla Placidia, who built it in her lifetime. It is about 40 feet long, and 32 in the transept; the arms being about 14 feet wide. The walls were once covered with marbles; these have disappeared, but all the vaulting is still covered with figures and arabesques in mosaic. On each side of the nave a plain marble sarcophagus is incrusted in the wall; and there is a larger one, adorned with sculpture, at each end of the transept; but the largest of all, which stands at the head of the cross, and once contained the bones of the empress herself, is quite plain, having been, as is supposed, originally covered with metal. There is said to have been a small window at the back of this chest, through which, in 1577, some children put a lighted candle, and the clothes and body of the empress were thereby consumed; on which account it was shut up; but I could discern no trace of its existence.
A.B. Clayton. del. from Sketches by J. Woods.