Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes.... explained to a degree

Still very taken with the mosaics in Ravenna and trying to understand more. Struggling to work out why they are hard to understand. I think it's because they are speaking with such a different dialect, as it were.
Help, as ever, from E.H. Gombrich/The Story of Art who discusses The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, above.

The point is, he says, is that this mosaic concentrates on what is strictly essential to convey i.e. that this is a miraculous and sacred scene. This is an important development away from Greek art, which had a multitude of other elements.

"At first glance, such a picture looks rather stiff and rigid. There is nothing of the mastery of movement and expression which was the pride of Greek art, and which persisted until Roman times. The way in which the figures are planted in strict frontal view may almost remind us of certain children's drawings. And yet the artist must have been very well acquainted with Greek art. He knew exactly how to drape a cloak round a body..... If the picture looks rather primitive to us, it must be because the artist wanted it to be simple.....the forms which the artists used in this new attempt were not the simple forms of primitive art, but the developed forms of Greek painting. Thus Christian art of the Middle Ages became a curious mixture of primitives and sophisticated methods."

More mosaics and a sunny morning in Ravenna

It's possible to buy a five-stop ticket to see the main mosaics in Ravenna. Did that yesterday - but the whole thing was so overwhelming that decide to do the same today.
Those in S ApolinnaireNuovo strike me most as they seem most human (as it were) - San Vitale is tremendous of course - but the detail seems important here.
Above is thought to be the first depiction of Satan - the blue angel to Jesus's left, behind the three goats (as in St Matthew's gospel).
Jesus here is a young, beardless man and is dressed as a Roman emperor.

NOTES
Gombrich The Story of Art throws light on this cavernous place. Emperor Constantine established the Christian Church as a power in the Roman empire in 311 AD: but there were no public places of worship. These couldn't be modelled on ancient temples, as their purpose was different. The inside of a temple usually just contained a small shrine for a god. Processions and sacrifices took place outside.
A church, however, needed room for a congregation.  So they were modelled on assembly halls that were known in classical times as 'basilicas'.  These buildings were also used as market halls and law courts and were usually long narrow spaces with narrow compartments on the longer sides, divided from the main hall by columns.  Hence the barn-like space.

The Sheep and the Goats/Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 25


31When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 32And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: 33And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.


34Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.


41Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: 42For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 43I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did itnot to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Temporary farewell to Venice and a train to Ravenna

Never easy to say goodbye to Venice but my route to the station aided enormously by my host who dropped me there in his boat. (Rather illegal, he muttered, as we drew near. Could you leap up on to the concrete? Of course).
Here he is speeding away, dodging the vaparettos.

The station - Venezia St. Lucia - has a slight monumental swagger.

But nothing compared to Milan Centrale (of which more later. A note on stations is needed. As is a note on reasons for pilgrimage: was Childe Harold really a pilgrim, in the strictest sense of the word?)
The train is busy until Padua, then almost empty. The light fades as we speed through orchards.

Am carrying my disintegrating Blue Guide in a recycled envelope from my daughter, which has become something of an old friend. (The original copy mentioned was of another book - The Black Prince/Iris Murdoch which I have been carrying around with me, without opening...)

Byron travelled to Ravenna on May 25th 1819. Stopping en route in Bologna where he found inscriptions in cemetery that pleased him.

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