For Late Roman Fans

[Robert Vermaat]

Thanks Stephen!

A strange mix of Late Roman styles (looking at tunics and how Jericho closely resembles the depiction of towns in the Notitia Dignitatum), but also stylized Hellenistic clothing and armour.

[Theodosius the Great]

Hi folks,
Pictures from Sta Maria Maggiore have now been posted. Sorry for the delay.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23242310@N ... 949112308/

I have tried to photoshop them as best I can, bearing in mind it is difficult to get balanced lighing and my laptop TFT is not the best at reproducing the clours as I think they are. Comments on the success or otherwise this are welcome.
Please bear in mind these were taken without a proper tripod from about 75cm off the ground so the resulting angles mean that the lower 25-50cm or so of each panel are missing.

Cool photos.

I posted some of these panels before :

• Ark of the Covenant
  Joshua outside the Jericho walls
  Joshua with the Archangel

There are many more which I haven't posted. The resolution is a bit better since the photos are from my book.

I'd really like a close up of the Christ in Roman armor mosaic from Ravenna. It's housed in the Bishop's chapel I believe.

~Theo

[Ceasar Augustus]

Thanks Stephen!

[SMC]

Hi,
Very nice pics and certainly higher res. What is our book?
I have a 35mm slide of the mosaic in question in Ravenna I took about 10 years ago. Unfortunately those slides are still in my old teaching room so I'll have to get access to it there and then scan it. When I do I'll post it. I can't really vouch for the quality of my older slides as they were taken with an OM10 i.e. not autofocus and my eyesight is not the best. I was in Ravenna last September but unfortunately that small chapel was closed for restoration. Pity as I was looking forward to getting a shot of it and the other mosaic decoration.

[Theodosius the Great]

Hi,
Very nice pics and certainly higher res. What is our book?
I have a 35mm slide of the mosaic in question in Ravenna I took about 10 years ago. Unfortunately those slides are still in my old teaching room so I'll have to get access to it there and then scan it. When I do I'll post it. I can't really vouch for the quality of my older slides as they were taken with an OM10 i.e. not autofocus and my eyesight is not the best. I was in Ravenna last September but unfortunately that small chapel was closed for restoration. Pity as I was looking forward to getting a shot of it and the other mosaic decoration.

"Roman Mosaics" by Joseph Wilpert. Here's the Amazon.com link : http://www.amazon.com/Roman-Mosaics-Ful ... 751&sr=1-1

It has over 60 mosaics from the 4th through 13th century A.D.. The vast majority are religious in subject which don't feature classical or contemporary Roman military equipment. I'd say there are only about half a dozen examples of those like the ones you and I posted but the book is worth buying at such a cheap price.

That'd be great if you could post your Ravenna photos of the Christ mosaic, thank you ! I'm very curious to see if there's any significant detail on the cuirass like lamellar plates. It seems the mosaic is really high above the ground from what I can tell from past photos. I suspect one would need a ladder to catch the kind the detail I'm looking for.

~Theo

[SMC]

From what I can remember, the mosaic is in the narthex of the chapel. Its immediately above your head as you walk in the door and since the whole chapel is so small it can't be more than 7 feet off the ground. I'll try and call in to get the slides later this week - I do know that an art historian colleague borrowed the set showing all the apostles heads from the same chapel and I don't think she ever returned them. However she wasn't interested in the image of Christ as a soldier so it may still be there.

[Ceasar Augustus]

Thanks for the link.

[Theodosius the Great]

From what I can remember, the mosaic is in the narthex of the chapel. Its immediately above your head as you walk in the door and since the whole chapel is so small it can't be more than 7 feet off the ground. I'll try and call in to get the slides later this week - I do know that an art historian colleague borrowed the set showing all the apostles heads from the same chapel and I don't think she ever returned them. However she wasn't interested in the image of Christ as a soldier so it may still be there.

Thank you, Stephen.

I look forward to seeing what you've got.

~Theo

[SMC]

Sorry guys, still haven't had a chance to get back up to the dept. and get my slides. I'll let you know when I do.

[Ceasar Augustus]

Ok.

[SMC]

Hi guys,
Apologies for the long delay. I went up to the department 3 weeks ago only to find the locks had been changed (at least they know their ancient strategists advice). Finally got in this week and have lifted about 1000 of my slides so I'll be scanning a load more stuff soon. Anyhow here is the image of Christ as an emperor in military uniform as promised. I cleaned it up as best I could but if its fully enlarged you will still see dust and dirt, sorry.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23242310@N ... 1/sizes/o/

Most of the slides I have are of late Roman and Byzantine fortififications in Europe and western Turkey, plus some churches and mosics of late antiquity. If anybody has any requests let me know and if I have slides of the site I'll put them at the top of the list for scanning.

[Ceasar Augustus]

Thanks, it's great.

[Theodosius the Great]

Wow, that's a BIG photo.

Thank you, Stephen.
Laudes from me.

Hmm...it's still difficult to determine what kind of armor is depicted. No vertical lines appear to suggest some type of scale or lamellar construction. Yet the shape and small size of the cuirass would seem to suggest lamellar, IMO. The purple band running across the chest is interesting. I can't tell if it's supposed to be a traditional 'Herculean knot' or a partition of one row of plates from another.

As a side note : This mosaic is very useful as evidence of a color scheme for pteruges. Clearly we can see the borders are yellow with matching fringe. Other mosaics from Santa Maggiore corroborate the color scheme seen on this Christ mosaic from Ravenna.

~Theo

[Ceasar Augustus]

The main problem is it's very hard to understand what it's showing.