Discuss the Byzantine decorative scheme in relation to the religious conflicts of the day, based on Sant’Apollinare Nuovo.

What will be an ideal response?

Sant’Apollinare Nuovo is one of the best-preserved sixth-century Byzantine churches. Its elaborate mosaic decoration testifies to a conflict of religious ideas going on at the time. The Ostrogoths followed the theological position of Bishop Arius of Alexandria while the Arians denied that Christ and God could be of the same essence, nature, or substance. Orthodox Christians argued that God and his son were one and the same. On both sides of the nave there are three tiers of mosaic decoration. At the top, in the clerestory, 26 scenes depict the life of Christ. The series as a whole is the earliest surviving example of such a complete iconography. It has survived unaltered from Theodoric’s time. Between the clerestory windows are 16 figures, possibly representing the prophets of the Hebrew Bible on one side and the apostles and evangelists of the New Testament on the other. The rising water table in Ravenna has caused the floor of the church to be raised four feet since the sixth century, causing the loss of a tier of mosaics.