Church of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo (Ravenna), dedicated 504

Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes from Sant’Apollinare Nuovo (Ravennna), c. 504

appearance of a gold background to suggest an unworldly (sacred) realm/ formal symmetry and economy of means (to reinforce its symbolic content)/ less emphasis on shadowing and more emphasis on the miraculous event

Rebecca and Eliezer at the well, from the Vienna Genesis, early sixth century; tempera, gold, and silver on purple vellum

Constantinople in Early Christianity/ codex and rotulus/ folio/ vellum and parchment/ persistence of Classical motifs and stylistic modes

Christ before Pilate, folio 8 verso of the Rossano Gospels, early sixth century, tempera on purple vellum Christ depicted with a beard and a nimbus/ use of labeling for narrative clarity

Suicide of Judas and the Crucifixion of Christ, c Suicide of Judas and the Crucifixion of Christ, c. 420, ivory plaque from a casket

Priestess celebrating the rites of Bacchus, right leaf of the Diptych of the Nicomachi and the Symmachi, c. 400, ivory persistence of the classical form with its emphasis on beauty/ ivory diptych/ discontent with the dominating Christian culture

St. Michael the Archangel, early sixth century, ivory ambiguous relationship between the figure and its setting