On September 12, Open Orthodox University of St. Sophia-Wisdom hosted the book launch of Decorative Fabrics in Mosaics of Ravenna. According to its author Yulia Matvieieva, churches have long been full of fabrics. Although no fabrics from the 5th and 6th centuries are still extant, they can be studied through mosaics of the Ravenna shrines which contain images of many textile items.
A TRUE CULTURAL DETECTIVE STORY
“When I was just beginning my study of fabrics in the mosaics of Ravenna, it seemed to me that I was taking on a very narrow subject. But then, I gradually came to see incredible new dimensions of it year after year. As a result, when the book was completed, it turned out that these fabrics had led me to deal with the fundamentals. They give us an opportunity not only to understand how everything was arranged in the church, how fabrics were used, but also to realize what meaning the people ascribed to their work then. After all, we often like the art of the 5th-7th centuries a lot. However, we cannot experience it to the full extent as people of that time did,” said the author.
Indeed, the meanings that were well-understood by Christians of the 5th-7th centuries have become a special language, a kind of cipher. In order to solve it, one needs not only information about fabrics. For example, a curtain on a mosaic becomes only the first cue. And then, according to Matvieieva, “every image begins to grow links with excerpts of texts of that time.”
ARCHPRIEST HEORHII KOVALENKO, RECTOR OF THE OPEN ORTHODOX UNIVERSITY OF ST. SOPHIA-WISDOM, APPLAUDS THE BOOK AND ITS AUTHOR YULIA MATVIEIEVA
Fabrics are much more than a composition element in the church. They are a special language of the church. It is precisely they that become an element that combines stories inside the shrine. Moreover, even as early as in the ancient Etruscan culture, there was an understanding of the shrine as a tent which was then maintained for a long time. And in the Christian tradition, the sky is perceived as something that God stretched out like a fabric.
Thanks to such a rich symbolic content, the analysis of even one curtain can lead to unexpected conclusions. Thus, research turns into an exciting cultural detective story.
RETHINKING ARCHAIC IMAGES
First of all, let us turn to patterns on fabrics, because they too can contain hidden meanings. For example, while visiting a church, one often comes across a flower image with heart-shaped petals and a green cross pattern on them. No such flower exists in nature. However, there is a plant with heart-shaped petals which is called mallow. The researcher decided to find out why this flower is so popular in Christian images.
It has turned out that mallow was an archaic food plant of the Mediterranean peoples. Hence, it is customary to plant mallows on graves, because it was believed that the dead would eat it and continue to live. Thus, mallow was a kind of food, a kind of bread that gave everlasting life. With the coming of Christianity, this image acquired a new meaning, for Christ is the bread of life. Therefore, these images were combined, and to prevent a pagan interpretation, the cross was painted on the flower.
CUES TO SOLVING THE RIDDLE OF THE RAVENNA MOSAIC
Researchers of the Basilica of San Vitale mosaic Empress Theodora and Her Courtiers have repeatedly asked the question of where the co-ruler of Byzantium is pictured to be heading. Some assumed that the empress is pictured heading to the choir of the shrine. At first glance, it is difficult to say whether it is so. Who knows what the masters who made it meant? This mosaic is like a text written in an unknown language. We see it, but cannot read it. More precisely, we could not, because Matvieieva has finally found the cues to solving the riddle. These cues came from curtains.
CURTAIN. A DETAIL OF THE MOSAIC EMPRESS THEODORA AND HER COURTIERS. MOSAICS IN THE ALTAR APSE OF THE BASILICA OF SAN VITALE, C. 546-548, RAVENNA
The fact is that curtains were an important semantic element of a shrine. They separated the sacred space from the secular one, so it was only natural that curtains hung in front of the altar (it is iconostasis that performs this function now). So it can be assumed, the researcher says in her analysis, that the empress is heading towards the altar. However, how can it be reconciled with the prohibition for women to be there? This prompted the author to look into written sources on Theodora’s time.
It turns out that the entrance to the altar was prohibited to all the laity except the emperor. The source does not mention anything about the empress. However, from other historical works it is known that according to Theodora’s husband Justinian’s decision, his wife had the same rights as the emperor, that is, she could enter the altar as well.
Moreover, if you accept this particular theory, other details on this mosaic also come to life and have their forgotten meanings restored. In particular, it becomes clear why Theodora is pictured holding a sacramental chalice (traditionally, the ruler of the state had to bring it to the altar once a year), and why it is not Theodora (!) that stands in the foreground of the picture but a wellspring that resembles a fountain. According to the researcher, this wellspring is a symbol of Christ who is everlasting life. Therefore, Theodora goes to meet him (just as the magi depicted on her robes did!) to bring gifts.
But there is more to the secrets of this mosaic. The researcher has also paid attention to a group of people who are pictured to have stopped under another curtain and standing as if tied in place. She remembered that she had already encountered something similar in the texts. In fact, there was a certain Byzantine ritual for receiving respectable guests or wealthy people which involved a curtain being hung in the middle of the hall, and they were supposed to stand under it and not to move further.
So, it is precisely such seemingly insignificant details that contain the cues to the riddle of the mosaic Empress Theodora and Her Courtiers. This is not just a regular day in the life of the ruler of Byzantium, but a special occasion in the history of the church in question when the Empress presented her gifts to it. Interestingly, although this mosaic is world-famous, its true meaning has become clear only now, and it was fabrics that served as cues. This is not the only discovery to have been made by our researcher.
A BOOK WHICH RESTORES MEANINGS
The book Decorative Fabrics in Mosaics of Ravenna discusses another language of the church which had previously been given insufficient attention. Without this knowledge, the mosaics of Ravenna are only of interest to art critics, while the rest sees them as merely episodes from the life of the imperial court, where the curtains are details of an interior, and flowers are just decorations. This is why this book can be called one which restores meanings, and not just to the mosaics of Ravenna. This example shows how insignificant details contain an incredible depth of history. Such books remind us that our world is full of innumerable signs and meanings, we just have to be able to read them.
