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RAVENNA: SEDES IMPERII and Artistic Trajectories in the Late Antique Mediterranean (402–476)

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RAVENNA: SEDES IMPERII and Artistic Trajectories in the Late Antique Mediterranean (402–476) Section d’histoire de l’art Seminář dějin umění RAVENNA: SEDES IMPERII And Artistic Trajectories in the Late Antique Mediterranean (402–476) Thèse de doctorat présentée à la Faculté des lettres de l’Université de Lausanne et à la Faculté des lettres de l’Université Masaryk de Brno pour l’obtention du grade de Docteur ès lettres par Zuzana Frantová Directeurs de thèse Nicolas Bock (Université de Lausanne) Ivan Foletti (Université Masaryk de Brno) 2017 Prohlašuji, že jsem diplomovou práci vypracovala samostatně s využitím uvedených pramenů a literatury. ..................................................... Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 5 Monuments of Ravenna in Modern Scholarship 7 Methodology 13 EAST OR WEST? HISTORIOGRAPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS 19 Ravenna and Byzantine Studies in Italy 21 Ravenna and Italian Nationalism 26 Orient oder Rom: Austria-Hungary between East and West 28 Ravenna and Italian Fascism 35 Orient oder Rom Again 39 Summary 42 PART ONE: CREATION OF A NEW SEDES IMPERII 45 Port of Classe and Local Workshops 45 ARCHITECTURE 51 Founding Cities in Late Antiquity 51 Ravenna in the Year 400 53 Production of Decorative Elements 55 Marble in Late Antiquity 58 Quarries 59 Negotiator marmorarius and Migrant Craftsmen 60 Marmorata 62 Pulvini and the Eastern Aesthetic 65 Sources of Inspiration: Milan, Rome, or Constantinople? 67 Summary 69 SARCOPHAGI 71 Local Production or Imports from Constantinople? 76 Discussion 78 The Ward-Perkins Model 81 The Russell’s Model 81 The Production of Sarcophagi 82 Production “to Stock” 83 Summary 86 GLASS TESSERAE 89 Glass Production in Late Antiquity 90 Secondary Production 93 The furnace in Classe 94 Tesserae production 95 Glass Production in Classe 98 Summary 101 IVORIES AND JEWELLERY 105 Volbach’s “School” of Ivory Carvers 107 Grouping Ravenna’s Ivories 110 Garnet cloisonné 112 The Origin 113 Production of Garnet cloisonné 115 Relations to Rome 117 Diplomacy 118 Ravenna: Centre of Production? 120 Summary 124 PART TWO: CHANGES OF AUTHORITIES 127 Ravenna’s Beginnings 128 Ravenna and Christianization of Northern Italy 130 The City Walls of Ravenna 134 Summary 135 HONORIUS (395–423) 137 Praise for Ravenna’s Defences 138 Ravenna versus Rome 140 Sedes imperii 144 Construction of the City 146 The Early Ravennate Churches 148 Ravenna and Constantinople 152 Efforts for Reunion the Empire 153 Halberstadt Diptych 154 Summary 160 VALENTINIAN III (425–455) 163 Ravenna after 425 164 Eastern Elites in the West 165 Galla Placidia 166 Church of Saint John the Evangelist 168 Mausoleum of Galla Placidia 171 Emperor and Rome 174 Emperor versus Pope 177 Elevation of Ravenna’s Church 179 Summary 182 BISHOP NEON (451–473) 183 Baptistery of Neon 183 The Theological Dispute concerning Christ’s Dual Nature 186 The Tomus ad Flavianum and the Chalcedonian Confession of Faith 188 Ravenna and the Primacy of Rome 189 The Milan Five-Part Diptych 190 Neon’s Artistic Patronage and Rome 193 Summary 199 CONCLUSION 201 BIBLIOGRAPHY 205 Sources 205 Secondary literature 206 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 253 ILLUSTRATIONS 257 Acknowledgements Through these lines, I would like to express my humble gratitude to the several people and institutions without whose help, support and friendship this thesis would not have been possible. In the first place my teacher and director of my thesis, Ivan Foletti, is a person to whom I am fully indebted. I have to start with thanks for sparking in me a passion for late antique art. He provided years of unfailing support and during my studies he guided me to a number of intriguing topics and I am grateful for sharing with me his vast knowledge of the ancient and the medieval worlds. I thank him for hours of his time spent with reading and discussing my text and for listening to and questioning my ideas. No words can express my gratitude for bringing my thesis to its conclusion. I have been fortunate to have an opportunity to conduct my research in co-tutoring with the second director, Nicolas Bock. I thank him for his guidance and advice he gave me especially at the moment when “losing the way”. His final remarks and suggestions were of great importance for the completion of my thesis and his impetuses were also important advice for the future. I would like to express my humble gratitude to the members of committee for their critical feedback during colloque de thèse in Lausanne. These are Michele Bacci, Carola Jäggi and Ondřej Jakubec. They all made me reflect deeper on my own approach and my debts to them are enormous. Of them I would like to thank especially to Ondřej Jakubec who unconditionally supported everything I and my colleagues wanted to realize during our studies. The most thought-provoking ideas which led me to write my thesis were born in the Center of Early Medieval Studies in Brno, which is a friendly place of encounters of inspiring people who are able to discuss together without any traces of academic hierarchy. In this sense the work I present is kind of collective collaboration and I am grateful to all of my colleagues and friends from the Center for always being willing to discuss my ideas and doubts and for encouragement in times of desperation. I would like to thank to all my colleagues and friends from Via Giorgio Vasari in Rome for the opportunity to spend over two thought-provoking years with them. These are Jana Čuprová, Janka Gazdagová, Ondřej Hnilica, Martin Jakubčo, Filip Kyrc, Martin Lešák, Kristýna Pecinová, Veronika Pichaničová, Sabina Rosenbergová, Pavla Tichá, Alena Vodáková and many others who came for a shorter or longer time. You all encouraged me greatly and made the period of writing this thesis something unforgettable. Of them I would especially like to thank to Alžběta Filipová for her friendship and for hours of discussion on our thesis writing simultaneously. At some moments, our researches touched and her impetuses were of great importance for the overall sense of my thesis. In addition, her inimitable charm and humour accompanied me throughout the years of research and it is hard to imagine it without her. In the same sense I thank Karolina Foletti who with her generosity and immense amiability makes everything easier to achieve. My special thanks go to Klára Benešovská who was always willing to listen, discuss and to give me helping hand. For English proofreading and deft improvements of my work and their prompt availability I thank Adrian Hundhausen and Sean Mark Miller. Any possible mistakes are of my responsibility. My chance to spend the time of my research in Rome would not have been possible without the financial support of the Fondation Zerilli-Marimò. For the funding for travel over the years, I thank the Specific Research Fund of Masaryk University in Brno. There are many others who have helped me on many levels in the course of my research. My sincere thanks go especially to my parents and my sister with her family, and to Michal who has always been supporting in all I have wanted to achieve. And, finally, I owe the greatest debt of gratitude to those who have had to expend a huge dose of patience, care and love: Ondřej, Dorotka, Matouš and Matýsek. Thank You. INTRODUCTION It is said that the events that transformed Ravenna into one of the most important centres of the late antique West began in the year 402. Probably at the end of this year, the court of Emperor Honorius (395–423) relocated to Ravenna.1 The court’s transfer was supposedly a response to the Gothic threat after Milan, the former residence of the Emperor, threatened by Alaric’s troops, leading Honorius and his court to seek a safer refuge.2 He supposedly found it in Ravenna, a city in a strategic position, protected by marshes and lagoons.3 “The Emperor’s choice sparked a prolonged period of urban growth for a community which had not been prominent in earlier Roman history. Palaces were built, splendid churches were decorated, baths were opened, and the extent of the city’s boundary was greatly enlarged as people flocked to the new center of Western Empire. Honorius had inaugurated the season of Ravenna’s glory, and for the next four centuries the city remained a military, administrative, ecclesiastical, and demographic center of prime importance.”4 This description of Ravenna briefly summarizes the point of view that has formed the historical background for art historical studies until now. The idea that people “flocked to the new centre of Western Empire”, and the terms “caput”, “capitale”, “Hauptstadt” – repeatedly used in historiography – lead us to presume that the city continuously enjoyed the exceptional position of “capital” of the West, starting with the arrival of Emperor Honorius and his court in 402, and that western emperors became permanent residents of Ravenna in that year. The local artistic production of high quality is then logically explained by the presence of the Emperor and his court.5 Ravenna is not called “caput Italiae”, however, until the ninth century. It is thus called in the ninth century by a high-ranking priest in the Ravennate church, Agnellus, in his Liber pontificalis ecclesiae Ravennatis.6 An analysis of this source, so important for an understanding of the history and artistic production of late antique Ravenna, was recently conducted by Deborah Mauskopf Deliyannis. Deliyannis clearly shows why Agnellus felt it necessary to compete with Rome: in the thirties of the ninth century, Ravenna’s church lost its 1 NERI 1990, p. 536. 2 More about Milan in late antique period in BERTELLI 1987; SENA CHIESA 1992. 3 Procopius, History of the Wars, Book V, pp. 16–18; REBECCHI 1993; FARIOLI CAMPANATI 1990, p.
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