Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

900 30. the visual arts
named Christian figures. The buildings are no doubt meant to evoke the
church in heaven, and the figures are saints engaged in the heavenly liturgy.
The name of each saint and his festival day is written in the mosaic. What
we have in this register is, in other words, a visual church liturgical calendar
encircling the dome. There has been considerable discussion about the
possible source of the calendar (a factor being that the inclusion of Cosmas
and Damian might help in the location and date of the source). But it can
at least be said that the choice of saints must represent current commemorations
in the city of Thessaloniki and that the conception indicates
the attention directed by the church authorities towards the content, value
and functions of public church art.
These two sophisticated examples of church decoration are significant
indicators of the nature of monumental art in the fifth century. One can
of course emphasize the classical past from which this art has emerged.
The architectural façades shown in the mosaics of the Rotunda can easily
be compared with the wall paintings of Pompeian and Campanian houses;
and the stock figures and architectural motives which appear both in the
mosaics of Santa Maria Maggiore and in the Virgil manuscripts no doubt
have models in Roman art. But since the stylistic appearance of both monuments
is so different from those of antiquity and from each other, the
identification of classical sources and stylistic traditions may be of only
minor value. With such grand interiors it is obvious that the services and
the accessories needed for them would need to match the splendour of the
walls, and that most attention was directed towards supplying the ‘proper’
beauty and holiness for the setting in which the clergy operated and society
participated. 31
It was not just the walls of churches that were lavishly decorated in
expensive materials; considerable attention was also given to the provision
of rich church plate in the fifth and sixth century. Archaeological evidence
of vessels in precious metals comes from the east and Asia Minor, and
descriptions in the Liber Pontificalis show the wealth that accumulated in
churches through the gifts of successive donors. 32 These gifts included textiles,
and the impressiveness in church decoration of woven textiles is conveyed
by the tapestry of the Virgin and Child with apostles, now in the
Cleveland Museum. 33 Some liturgical silver might be purchased by
churches and monasteries from their own resources, and much was given
as votive gifts ‘for the remission of sins’. By the middle of the sixth century,
the production of these pieces was highly sophisticated and no doubt phenomenally
expensive: the Sion Treasure from Asia Minor (now in
Dumbarton Oaks and the Antalya Museum) includes large heavy pieces as
31 MacCormack (1981); Van Dam, Leadership and Community; Cameron (1987); McCormick, Eternal
Victory. 32 Davis (1989). 33 Pelikan (1990) is constructed around this tapestry.
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