Medieval mosaics in San Giovanni Evangelista

Medieval mosaics in  San Giovanni Evangelista. Hotel near San Giovanni Evangelista in the centre of Ravenna.

All together these mosaics mirror the culture of that time: the subject thematic uniqueness of men's salvation incidental to the church makes this building the public building of excellence

The narration through creative imagery - a sort of moral vade mecum for spectators - develops subjects from famous novels, legends and a sort of a mystic zoology in an allegoric-moral description (shortly defined as Bestiario).

Besides these topics there are paintings depicting the news of the IV Crusade, ended in 1204 with the Latin victory, the establishment of the Latin Empire of Costantinople and the election of Francesco Morosini from Ravenna  as Patriarch of Venice.

The various events have a poor composition and are illustrated, as in medieval miniatures,  with the total absence of proportions  between figures and settings and an absolute graphic drawing style and thin descriptive borders.

Colours insist on only the faces' obliged points, as cheeks and mouths; movements are embarrassed and rigid but the story is immediate, fresh, with the genius of Medieval story tellers when singing deeds of heroes and characters of  chivalrous novels.

(Professor Nurith Kenaan-Kedar, studious of Middle Age and deacon of the  Art Faculty  at the University of Tel Aviv proposes a tender and human reading of the figures, as a sort of  ex-votum by an unhurt crusade back to  Ravenna).

A romantic love story in the shade of the IV Crusade: see the text the mosaic flooring in S.Giovanni Evangelista by KENAAN-KEDAR.

Other panels depict themes from famous courteous novels and tragicomic stories with moral endings (see the funeral of the dead fox)

Real and fantasy animals and monstrous creatures in the last panels are the elements of a zoological cycles recalling natural science treatises or the already named Bestiario.

Prof. Gianni Morelli

The pleasure of fine accommodation in the centre of Ravenna: we recommend the Fabbri hotels for a pleasant stay as follows:

The Centrale Byron Hotel, 3-star hotel in the centre of Ravenna, close to the main momuments;

The Bisanzio Hotel, 4-star hotel in the centre of Ravenna, close to the main momuments;

Once you have reached the hotel and parked your car, forget it and walk everywhere, because everything is within walking distance.

The railway station is near our hotels and within walking distance.