RAVENNA: CITY OF BYZANTINE SPLENDOR @ THE SMITHSONIAN FREER GALLERY

http://photos1.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/1/6/a/600_177480362.jpegRAVENNA: CITY OF BYZANTINE SPLENDOR
@ THE SMITHSONIAN FREER GALLERY of ART
http://photos1.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/1/6/a/600_177480362.jpeg

http://photos2.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/3/f/4/600_257821012.jpeg

RAVENNA c. 546 AD - MOSAIC depecting
Emperor JUSTINIAN I and his Court

THE SMITHSONIAN ASSOCIATES
Present

RAVENNA: CITY OF BYZANTINE SPLENDOR
EVENING SEMINAR
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2013 - 6:45 PM to 8:45 PM
Eugene & Agnes E. MEYER Auditorium
FREER GALLERY OF ART
12th & Independence Ave., SW | Washington, DC
(Enter on Independence Avenue side)
PHONE: 202-633-3030
FOR DETAILS & TO BUY YOUR TICKETS >>> “CLICK HERE” (http://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/reserve.aspx?performanceNumber=226570)
NO TICKETS SOLD @ PIAZZA ITALIA

http://photos1.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/b/b/6/1/600_12827969.jpeg

LECTURE by Prof. Elaine RUFFOLO
Syracuse University

As a capital of the Roman Empire in its twilight and the Byzantine Empire in its ascendance, Ravenna’s artistic and architectural influences reflect Greco-Roman tradition, Christian iconography, and Oriental and Western styles.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7f/Baptistery.Arians06.jpg/640px-Baptistery.Arians06.jpg

RAVENNA - Ceiling Mosaic of the Arian Baptistry (c. 565 AD)

Art historian Elaine Ruffolo highlights the history of this city, its important architecture, and the extraordinarily decorative complexes of its churches—masterpieces of an age when artistic achievement was reaching one of its summits in the form of mosaics. UNESCO has recognized the “outstanding universal value” of Ravenna’s early Christian buildings, citing “the supreme artistry of the mosaic art that the monuments contain” and “the crucial evidence that they provide of artistic and religious relationships and contacts at an important period of European cultural history”.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Basilica_of_San_Vitale%2C_Ravenna%2C_Italy.jpg

RAVENNA - Christian-Byzantine Basilica di San VITALE (c. 526)
The Church with the MOST mosaics

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/Emilia_Ravenna5_tango7174.jpg/450px-Emilia_Ravenna5_tango7174.jpg

RAVENNA - Christian Byzantine Basilica di San VITALE
Magnificent MOSAICS in the PRESBITERY (c. 547)
http://photos3.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/4/1/c/600_257821052.jpeg
http://photos4.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/3/f/e/600_257821022.jpeg

For a brief, dazzling moment, Ravenna was an unlikely refuge for a world falling apart. The city’s history, enshrined in superb Byzantine mosaics, reflects the twilight of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Middle Ages. While ageless monuments were falling everywhere, Ravenna was crowded with new and sumptuous palaces and monuments. As the capital of the Western Roman Empire in its last days, then of the occidental provinces of the Byzantine Empire, it offered a refuge of luxury and splendor, a return to antique civilization rising above the relentless waves of Barbarians.