Capturing light in Late Antique Ravenna A new interpretation of the Archbishops ’ Chapel

Analysing the cultural context in which the archbishops’ chapel in Ravenna 
 was built, the article proposes a new interpretation of the structure. 
 Designed in a period when the Catholic Church and the Arian court were 
 clashing, and displaying numerous baptismal motifs, the chapel seems to have 
 been designed as a secluded baptistery. The structure’s baptismal character 
 transpires from its architecture and iconography, analysed here on the 
 backdrop offered by Late Antique baptismal theory and iconography.

The cappella arcivescovile from Ravenna represents a puzzling case.Despite being the only surviving private chapel from Late Antiquity, it received only a moderate amount of scholarly attention, perhaps due to the fact that its main function remains unknown. 1 The inscription in its narthex testifies to the Late Antique practice of praising lavishly decorated interiors for producing their own light, but unlike similar texts the Ravennate one goes beyond aesthetic considerations, evincing a complex theology of the Divine Presence manifested as light and of the cultic building as its mise-en-scène.The key to understanding the building lies, we argue, in the anthropological dimension of the text, an aspect so far overlooked by researchers.In light of our recent research on the role of light in Late Antique baptismal theology and ritual, we argue that the building was designed as a potential baptistery.

I. Ravenna at the Beginning of the Sixth Century
Despite the tolerant character of Theodoric's reign, the relations between the Arian and the Catholic churches appear tensed even before the king's radical change of heart. 2 The conflictual state is mirrored by the cultic buildings erected in the period, the iconography of both the archbishops' chapel and that of the baptistery of the Arians having polemic tones. 3The secluded position as well as the anti-Arian agenda of the chapel's iconography indicate that the building was either a reaction to Theodoric's change of policy or that it reflects an already existing tension.
Bishop Peter II (494-519/520), to whom the chapel is traditionally ascribed, held office during most of Theodoric's rule.Elected bishop the year after Theodoric's conquest of Ravenna, Peter seems to have collaborated well with the Ostrogothic king, his signature appearing on official documents released by the court.Nevertheless, it must be stressed that the small, isolated chapel is the only cultic building made intra muros during his twenty-five years office. 4Compared with the intense building activity of the Catholic Church before and after Theodoric's reign, as well as with that of the Arian Church in the same time frame, the matter is indicative of the Church's position during the Ostrogothic rule.Also, while in general it appears that the king discouraged proselytism in both directions, the building of an Arian baptistery for adults indicates a change of policy.The chapel's iconography, secluded position, and baptismal dimension appear thus as a reaction of the Church to the court's anti-Catholic attitude.
3 V.Mauskopf Deliyannis,Ravenna in Late Antiquity,196, Agnellus, our main source for Ravenna in Late Antiquity, confuses Peter I Chrysologus (c.431-450) with Peter II, so the information he gives on the latter's activity is not entirely reliable. Aart from the monasterium, a medieval term denoting private chapels cf.tury.While most of the original decoration survived in good enough state to allow its reconstruction, the original iconography of the apse and the chapel's lunettes remains unknown.Along with this loss, the closing of the door that allowed the accessing of the narthex through the adjacent tower appears as the main factor affecting the perception of the chapel as it was intended by its builders (Fig. 1).The inscription running on the narthex' walls, quoted in extenso by Agnellus, is instrumental in understanding the building's nature, revealing the baptismal perspective in which the architecture and decoration should be approached.As we will argue, the chapel's architecture, inscription, and iconography support the baptismal thesis.

II.1. The Architecture
The similarity of Late Antique baptism to ceremonies such as the one described by Apuleius in his Metamorphoses 11.23, or the one found in the so-called Mithras Liturgy, meant also the manipulation of one's response to the eventual rite through the setting of spatial thresholds. 5ost visible in Cyril of Jerusalem's catecheses, the process through which the spaces adjacent to the baptistery were used to enhance the expectation is attested also in Late Antique Ravenna. 6In the case of the chapel the spatial succession required by the ritual is evident in the relation between the tower, the narthex, and the chapel itself.The dark staircase of the tower and the narthex with its golden mosaic stand in contrast, symbolising one's passing from the darkness of sin to the light of life.A similar spatial distribution is evident in the chapel of the fourth-century Roman villa from Frampton, Dominic Perring pertinently arguing for an initiatory, perhaps baptismal, character of the ritual enacted in the space. 7At Frampton, the long corridor assured one's reaction to the decorated narthex while the latter prepared one for the experience it was to go through inside the main room.In Ravenna, inside the narthex the apotaxis and syntaxis, the ritual turning towards the West and then the East that preceded baptism, appear orchestrated.As one entered the antechamber through the tower he had the window on the right, opposing the lunette on the left where the devil was depicted.Like geographic east, the window symbolised the Light of Christ, catechumens pledging their allegiance towards it after renouncing the devil, depicted as the snake and asp trampled on by Christ.As in the nearby Baptistery of the Orthodox, the designer substituted the cosmic principle based on the East-West opposition with a concept coherent with the building's layout. 8n important element in assuring the catechumens' reaction to the setting, the contrast between the simple exterior of baptisteries and the interior where the Christian image of heaven was fleshed-out through the decoration and ritual, was enacted in the case of the chapel through its secluded position.The floor plan is consistent with that of baptisteries, many of which were cruciform and had one of the sides turned into an apse. 9The cruciform element sends to a double, Christic and martyrical dimension that is supported by the iconography.Presented, in line with Paul's Col. 2.11 and Rom.6.3-4, as dying and resurrecting with Christ, baptism was from early on associated with martyrdom. 10The martyrical dimension of baptism was catalysed by the disappearance of systematic persecutions, the initiation being orchestrated as a symbolic martyrdom at the end of which the person regained the Christ-like status Adam had had before the Fall. 11The cruciform space suited thus the symbolism of the act, synthesising the catechumens' con-crucifixion and rebirth with Christ, through baptism.
The absence of the font indicates either the use of a mobile font, -like the fourth-or fifth-century lead ones found at Icklingham, or the monolithic type that could have been removed without leaving significant traces-, or the association of the very chapel with a symbolic font.12Indeed, if aspersion was practiced instead of immersion the identification of the chapel with the font, catalysed not only by the popularity of cruciform fonts but also by the use of marble revetment on the lower part of the walls, appears possible. 13As shown in Bissera Pentcheva's recent study, marble was perceived in Late Antiquity as solidified water, Paul the Silentiary' ekphrasis of the pavement in Hagia Sophia evoking "an alchemical process, in which stone liquefies into water and molten metal": The peak of Proconnesus soothingly spreading over the entire pavement has gladly given its back to the life-giving ruler, the radiance of the Bosphorus softly ruffling transmutes from the deepest darkness of swollen waters to the soft whiteness of radiant metal. 14e exiting of the structure through a door opposing that of entrance, a key element in baptismal architecture, was assured in the chapel by the door leading from the narthex to the inside of the episcopium.The placing above the door of the image of Christ warrior holding the gospel open at Jn 14.6 reminded the newly baptised of the model they were to follow while stressing that through baptism they were now entering a spiritual arena.

II.2. The Inscription
Given that the chapel's dedication to St. Andrew seems to have been made at a later date, 15 the decoration of the structure, that is its iconography and rhetoric of materials, needs to be analysed in the context represented by contemporary Ravenna, the episcopium, and the inscription in the narthex.The anti-Arian dimension of the iconography appears as a nuance, an insertion into the main Christic and martyrical principle dominating the program.As already argued, the two dimensions have an overt baptismal meaning, as does the mise-en-scène organised as a theophany of Christ represented by the chrismon.
Following the natural progression of the space, we will begin with the analysis of the narthex where, we argue, the inscription was meant to function as an interpretative trigger.The building of an expectation followed by its fulfilment during the ritual is a technique attested in Late Antique baptism.The partial maintaining of the disciplina arcani throughout the catechetical process, as well as the setting of epistemic, visual, and spatial thresh- olds that were annulled upon the completion of the cycle forced the orchestration of the final act, baptism proper, as a life-altering event in which Christian baptismal theology was fleshed-out using a common symbolic code. 16hile written sources attest the presentation of baptism as a light theophany, baptismal iconography testifies the translating of the concept into the decoration through the depiction of Christ or the chrismon at the summit of the synthetically displayed cosmic structure. 17The use of cosmic elements, especially solar ones, attests the reliance on a widespread Late Antique imagery associated with visionary ascensions.The inscription in the narthex sends to this knot of motifs, hinting to the catechumens the nature of the experience they were about to go through.The text marks the threshold between earth and heaven, preparing one for the sight of the Divine Light: As revealed by Giselle de Nie, in contemporary Gaul bishops consciously altered the perception of ritual contexts through their association with Old Testament and New Testament episodes presented as patterns. 19The process can be seen developing even earlier.The fourthcentury pilgrim from Bordeaux saw only the physical remains of the Incarnation in his visit to the Holy Land while a few decades later Egeria, with the help of a ritual, saw not only Golgotha but also the Cross and Christ crucified on it.It was precisely such a "strategy of imagination" that the catechetical process produced, Cyril of 16 V.e.g.Theodore of Mopsuestia.Catechetical homilies 1.27 "After we have, by our profession of faith, made our contracts and engagements with God our Lord, through the intermediary of the priest, we become worthy to enter His house and enjoy its sight, its knowledge and its habitation, and to be also enrolled in the city and its citizenship." (Commentary of Theodore of Mopsuestia on the Lord's prayer and on the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist, ed. A. Mingana,  Cambridge 1933, 34).The use of a common imagery in the mise-enscène was important because, as noticed by D. Janes, God and Gold in Late Antiquity, Cambridge 1998, 117-118 "People's visual symbolic language was rooted largely outside the Church.Therefore, secular metaphors had to be used in Christian propaganda, or else such arguments would not have been comprehensible to the masses." 17 Between Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis.Metamorphoses, vol.3, ed.D. S. Robertson, trans.P. Vallette, Paris 1945, 159-60 (11.23) and Gregory of Tours.History of the Franks, trans.E. Brehaut, New York 1916, 169-72 (7.1) the idea of ascension through the structure of the cosmos ending with a theophany presented as a transformational experience was popular. 18 Jerusalem declaring that his pre-baptismal sermons are meant to create a prism for apprehending the world in Christian key. 20Upon entering the narthex and seeing/ hearing the epigram's reference to captured divine light, one's imagination prepared him for the apprehension of the subsequent scene, coming to expect a space associated with heaven, thus essentially luminous and inhabited by celestial beings.
The text begins with a praise of the decorative materials, a typical appreciation of the Late Antique cultic building for being luminous "suis radiis et sine sole." 21he space's relation with light suited its baptismal character, the Late Antique baptistery being called photistérion due to the amount of lights used in the ritual and its lavish decoration. 22The nocturnal character of the ritual and its complete dependency on artificial illumination, the association of Jesus' baptism with a light theophany, as well as the common use of light in other initiatory rituals prompted the orchestration of baptism as a light theophany. 23The identification of the lights used in the ritual with God's luminous Glory, stimulated through the particular use of decorative materials, led to the development of a light imagery associated with baptism and its setting.The fleshing-out of heaven inside the baptistery is attested in Chysologus' Ravenna, 24 being also mirrored in Neon's program which is dominated by the image of Christ as a nocturnal sun.The decoration and iconography of the chapel are thus consistent with that of baptisteries, showing the created world illuminated from above by Christ, overlapped with the sun as in the Baptistery of the Orthodox or represented by His solar symbol, the chrismon. 25he inscription's reference to light being either born or captured in the chapel synthesises perfectly the ambivalence of the light used in the ritual, presented as participating in its divine counterpart.
After mentioning the patron of the oratory the first part ends with an element pertaining to Christian anthropology, the postulation of the human heart as temple of Christ.The matter testifies Peter II's belonging to the theological tradition his predecessors Peter Chrysologus and Neon had promoted. 26The anthropological dimension is further developed in the second part of the inscription, which is often overlooked by modern scholars: 23 Other Late Antique ritual mise-en-scènes relied on orchestrated theophanies enacted through the manipulation of space and light phenomena.E.g. the Eleusian mysteries and Mithraism.
The relation between the two Peters, establishing an analogy between the apostle and the Ravennate bishop, argues for the coordination of the chapel's iconography with the rest of the episcopium since part of the latter was a triclinium made by Bishop Neon (c.450-73) where the apostle's story was depicted, along with an inscription praising him as embodying the Church. 27If the decoration of the various spaces of the episcopium was designed to complement each other, further elements supporting the baptismal thesis can be drawn from the manner in which what was depicted in Neon's triclinium could have completed the ritual experience of the catechumens.Indeed, if the neophytes were led out through the episcopal residence, they could have been taken to see the mosaics embellishing the dining hall which showed the creation of the world and the story of Peter, accompanied by texts evincing Neon's appropriation of Chrysologus' postulation of the perfect Christian as a luminous Image of God.
The inscription in the narthex continues with the association of the master with the house and of the maker with what is made.At first sight, the praise of the founder is again related with that of the building, the latter reflecting his merits.Nevertheless, in light of the transformational effect attributed to baptism -the ritual being credited with the change of the catechumen's ontological fundament from Adam to Christ, postulating its becoming a Christ-like figure -the association of the maker with that which is made bears a baptismal relevance, supported by the further praising of Christ for making the two one.The latter motif, drawing on Paul's Eph.2.14, had received a lot attention in the work of Peter Chrysologus who developed it in baptismal context, the bishop arguing that the Incarnation united humanity with the divine in the person of Jesus and that the same continued to happen through baptism. 28he last part of the inscription deals with the state one should have when approaching the chapel, an element on which bishops insisted in catecheses.The coming to the baptistery with fear and awe, induced by the promise to see God directly combined with the stressing of the catechumen's unworthiness and potential dangerous effect of the experience, is recurrent in pre-baptismal sermons. 29The sickness and the doctor mentioned in the text indicate the sinful state and the bishop, respectively, while the fear of death reinforces the baptismal thesis since, as evinced by Gordon P. Jeans, it was the imminence of death that led most Late Antique persons to go through baptism.30

II.3. The Iconography
As already stated, the space inside the chapel is both martyrical/Christic and visionary.Due to the unknown iconography of the apse the complete program remains unknown but in light of the coherence of the Christic dimension in the extant decoration it appears unlikely that the missing part would have changed the overall meaning of the setting.The scene appears as a depiction of Christian heaven, martyrs living bathed in the light coming from Christ cf.Rev. 21.23. 31 The central space is flanked on all four sides by the portraits and symbols of Christ (Fig. 2), reinforcing the Christic character of the ritual taking place under the centre of the vault, where the chrismon is again depicted.Both the martyrical and the Christic dimensions are relevant for our analysis, baptism being presented as a bloodless martyrdom generating Christ-like beings. 32If a font was placed at the centre of the room, under the depicted oculus, the iconography and decoration would have made perfect sense in light of Late Antique baptismal theory and imagery.
The synthetic depiction of the cosmic structure ending in an oculus through which the main deity of the cult was visible appears as a common iconographic choice for Late Antique initiation spaces.In the chapel the angel caryatids connect the earth represented by the green patches they stand on with the sky on which the zoa and the oculus appear, stressing the vertical momentum of the space.As in the baptisteries of Naples and Albenga the oculus renders visible the symbol of Christ, the golden chrismon standing for the promised light theophany. 33543-4 (1.4) and other sources.G. P. Jeans, How Successful was Baptism in the Fourth Century AD?, Studia patristica 20 (1989) 379-383. 31The rows of apostles and martyrs depicted on the arches stress the identification of the interior of the chapel with heaven, a common idea in Late Antiquity being the population of heaven exclusively with martyrs.The apostles were considered martyrs in this period.New York 1989, 127 (52.2)] states that baptism opens the skies allowing the initiated to surpass the elements and see the substance of God and the sun.

Fig. 1 .
Fig. 1.Floor plan showing the original entrance (after Deichmann, Ravenna, pl.12) 32 V. Gregory of Nazianzus.Or. 40.10, making the newly baptised address the devil as such: "I am myself the Image of God; I have not yet been cast down from the heavenly Glory, as you have through your pride; I have put on Christ; I have been transformed into Christ by Baptism; worship me." (Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, Series II, Vol. 7, 363). 33V. the nocturnal sun mentioned in Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis.Metamorphoses, 159-60 (11.23) and the role the sun plays in the initiation described in the so-called Mithras Liturgy (H.D. Betz, The "Mithras Liturgy".Text, Translation, and Commentary, Tübingen 2003).In Christian sources the presence of Christ as the sun during baptism is mentioned by Zeno of Verona Tractatus 2.6.3.6-7(San Zenone di Verona.I Discorsi, ed.G. Banterle, Milano-Roma 1987, 256) while Maximus of Turin [The Sermons of St. Maximus of Turin, trans.B. Ramsey,

Fig. 2 .
Fig. 2. Vault mosaic decoration (after F. W. Deichmann,Frühchristliche Bauten und Mosaiken von Ravenna,Baden-Baden, 1958, pl.220) Capturing light in Late Antique Ravenna A new interpretation of the Archbishops' Chapel Baptism in the Early Church: History, Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries, Grand Rapids, 2009, passim, discusses Early Christian and Late Antique sources that point to baptism through aspersion.Cyprian of Carthage [The Letters of Cyprian of Carthage, in: Ancient Christian Writers 47, trans.G. W. Clarke, New York 1989, 40-2 (69.12)] considers baptism through aspersion valid if the person is sick or moribund, thus in special conditions. 14Paulus Silentiarius.Descriptio Sanctae Sophiae, 664-7 (trans.B. Pentcheva, Hagia Sophia and Multisensory Aesthetics, Gesta 50/2 (2011) 93-111, 97).The relation between the use of marble on the chapel's walls and Pentcheva's article was made by Vera-Simone Schulz during a discussion we had in Haifa in January 2013.On the perception of marble in Late Antique churches v. also F. Barry, Walking on Water: Cosmic Floors in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Art Bulletin 89 (2007) 627-56; B. Kiilerich, The Aesthetic Viewing of Marble in Byzantium: From Global Impression to Focal Attention, Arte Medievale 2 (2012) 9-28.