DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61666#0031
calculated asymmetry of the scrollwork, and the casual variations in the moulding
of identical elements give an air of artistic freedom to the whole.
The grape-vines, the canthari, and the numerous other elements that enter into the
designs of the stuccoes of San Vitale are, however, familiar things for which there
are many parallels elsewhere. In what follows only a few of these parallels can be
referred to ; a complete study of the various designs would lead us very far afield. When
compared with the ornament of the nearly contemporary church of Hagia Sophia
at Constantinople the ornament of the stuccoes of San Vitale is seen to represent
another tradition. The grape-vine is not laid out symmetrically, as is the case in most
monuments by this time, e. g., the ivory episcopal throne at Ravenna; nor is there
any suggestion of the coloristic or light-and dark effect, already incipient as early as
the much discussed Lateran pillar and becoming general by the sixth century. These
features that combine and reach their culmination in the Mshatta facade are utterly
foreign to the spirit of the stuccowork of San Vitale. For the latter parallels must be
sought in the naturalistic trend of Hellenistic ornament, not in the new orientalizing
tendency generally dominant in Hagia Sophia, and in other monuments contempo-
rary to it.
The grape-vine in the naturalistic form in which it appears in the stuccoes is a Helle-
nistic commonplace. The example in San Vitale seems a throw-back to an art some
centuries earlier. From popular pagan usage it passed over into Christian art in the
catacombs, where it was treated freely and plastically as here8. This treatment of
the vine seems to have remained in great favor at Ravenna. It occurs repeatedly in
the mosaics, e. g., in the lateral vaults of the so-called Mausoleum of Galla Placidia
and in the lunettes above the upper triforia of the presbytery of San Vitale; and it
gives with its peculiar plasticity a distinct and local character to many pieces of
decorative sculpture, e. g., the altar frontal in the chapel of the relics in Sant’ Apolli-
27
of identical elements give an air of artistic freedom to the whole.
The grape-vines, the canthari, and the numerous other elements that enter into the
designs of the stuccoes of San Vitale are, however, familiar things for which there
are many parallels elsewhere. In what follows only a few of these parallels can be
referred to ; a complete study of the various designs would lead us very far afield. When
compared with the ornament of the nearly contemporary church of Hagia Sophia
at Constantinople the ornament of the stuccoes of San Vitale is seen to represent
another tradition. The grape-vine is not laid out symmetrically, as is the case in most
monuments by this time, e. g., the ivory episcopal throne at Ravenna; nor is there
any suggestion of the coloristic or light-and dark effect, already incipient as early as
the much discussed Lateran pillar and becoming general by the sixth century. These
features that combine and reach their culmination in the Mshatta facade are utterly
foreign to the spirit of the stuccowork of San Vitale. For the latter parallels must be
sought in the naturalistic trend of Hellenistic ornament, not in the new orientalizing
tendency generally dominant in Hagia Sophia, and in other monuments contempo-
rary to it.
The grape-vine in the naturalistic form in which it appears in the stuccoes is a Helle-
nistic commonplace. The example in San Vitale seems a throw-back to an art some
centuries earlier. From popular pagan usage it passed over into Christian art in the
catacombs, where it was treated freely and plastically as here8. This treatment of
the vine seems to have remained in great favor at Ravenna. It occurs repeatedly in
the mosaics, e. g., in the lateral vaults of the so-called Mausoleum of Galla Placidia
and in the lunettes above the upper triforia of the presbytery of San Vitale; and it
gives with its peculiar plasticity a distinct and local character to many pieces of
decorative sculpture, e. g., the altar frontal in the chapel of the relics in Sant’ Apolli-
27