NEW Ravenna: Capital of the Mosaic
Dr George Bartlett
Friday 3 – Sunday 5 May 2024
£495
NB. All of our 2024 Study Tours have now taken place. Our new programmes for 2025 will be online in mid December this year. If you are not already on our mailing list, do contact short.courses@courtauld.ac.uk to join, so that you do not miss out when we launch the programmes.
Course description
Over three days, this tour will visit the mosaicked sites of the small Italian city of Ravenna: San Vitale; Sant’Apollinare in Classe; Sant’ Apollinare in Nuovo; The Arian Baptistery; The Orthodox Baptistery; The Archbishop’s Palace, and the so-called Mausoleum of Galla Placidia. These buildings feature some of the most sumptuous and vibrant works in the history of art, including the magnificent starry night from the dome of the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, and the imposing imperial portraits of Justinian and Theodora from San Vitale. Such mosaics date from a fascinating phase in Ravenna’s history when, during the 5th and 6th centuries CE, the city was subject to a tug-of-war between the Western Romans, the Ostrogoths, and the Byzantines. Each of these groups expressed their respective claims to political dominance and their Christian beliefs through the powerful and dazzling medium of mosaic.
During our visits, we shall think about how mosaics were commissioned and made, observe the stylistic evolution from late Roman to early Medieval and Byzantine art, and think critically about the connotations of labels like ‘classical’, ‘medieval’ and ‘Byzantine’ and how we might classify works from this transitionary period. In addition to the mosaicked sites, we shall also explore the Mausoleum of Theodoric and the National Museum of Ravenna.
Lecturer's biography
Dr George Bartlett completed his PhD in art history at the University of Sussex in 2020, with a thesis on Christ’s naming inscriptions in Byzantine art. At Sussex, George taught classes on Late Antique, Medieval, and Byzantine art, as well as on research skills and theory. George has been a Courtauld Summer School lecturer since 2019 and is an Associate Lecturer for the MA in Art Conservation at West Dean College and for the Postgraduate Diploma at the London School of Mosaic. He has recently worked at the Institute of Classical Studies, University of London and is currently also an art researcher at HENI Publishing.