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Christ, Paradise, Trees, and the Cross in the Byzantine Art of Italy

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112 International Journal of Orthodox Theology 9:2 (2018)
urn:nbn:de:0276-2018-2061

Mario Baghos

Christ, Paradise, Trees, and the Cross in

the Byzantine Art of Italy

Abstract

Many religions metaphorically view

trees, due to their vertical orientation,
as existentially significant axes mundi,
or life-sustaining‘ centers of the
world’ that connect the heavenly and
earthly realms. Christianity is no dif-
ferent in its approach to trees in Eden
or paradise, and also to the cross of
Jesus Christ. In fact, paradise, trees,
and the cross have been artistically
represented in the Byzantine art of
various Italian churches and other
monuments, but nowhere has the
concept of axis mundi, the ‘centre of Dr. Mario Baghos is
Adjunct Lecturer at the
the world,’ as articulated by the re- School of Theology,
nowned historian of religions Mircea Charles Sturt University,
Eliade, been consistently applied to Australia
 Christ, Paradise, Trees, 113
and the Cross in the Byzantine Art of Italy

an analysis of Byzantine art. This article addresses this lacuna

by analyzing monuments and churches in Ravenna, Classe, and
Torcello - Italian towns that were under Byzantine control and
influence until the eighth century AD - that contain some of the
best examples of representations of Christ, paradise, trees, and
the cross as axes mundi, but only insofar as they support the
depiction of Christ as the true axis mundi. It is, therefore, an
interdisciplinary piece, insofar as it integrates Byzantine histo-
ry, concepts from the history of religions interpreted from a
Christian point of view, and theological analysis of Byzantine
art based on scriptural, apocryphal, and patristic sources.

Keywords
tree, cross, paradise, axis mundi, imago mundi

1 Introduction

In the religious perception of human beings in ancient and me-

dieval times, both natural and manufactured objects could be
metaphorically considered as mediums for the disclosure of the
sacred, what Mircea Eliade termed the “hierophany.”1 The

1 In the case of the term ‘hierophany,’ I do not imply the structuralism

inherent in Eliade’s approach, which suggests the manifestation of the
same sacrality in all religious experiences. However, in treating vari-
ous objects, including trees and crosses, as axes mundi or centres of the
world, I use Eliade’s definition of this concept and so, for consistency,
at least at the beginning of this paper, I refer to other terms used by
him, such as ‘hierophany.’ Below I will use the term ‘theophany,’ mean-
ing ‘manifestation of God,’ which gives a specifically Christian nuance
to manifestations of the sacred. Also, my repeated use of the term axis
mundi is given a Christian nuance throughout.
114 Mario Baghos

former included trees and the latter included images of trees

and other natural objects in the art and architecture of cities. It
is a truism that, in ancient religions, trees (and items fashioned
from them), gardens, and flowers, could be associated with
manifestations of a sacredness that was homologous with the
natural world that was often considered eternal.2 Trees, which
are part of the natural world, could be viewed symbolically as
eternal and as dispensing eternal life. However, since in the
ancient world nature was neither considered unilaterally sa-
cred nor eternal, it must be determined from the outset what
specific conditions accounted for the evident sacredness of
some trees and the profane nature of others.
This article presupposes that it is the hierophany itself that
accounted for the distinction between sacred and profane trees
since this manifestation took place in the former and not in the
latter. Moreover, human beings were prompted to inhabit and
cosmicise the space around these hierophanies because sa-
credness could only be experienced in close proximity to the
place where it was revealed.3 Paradoxically, this cosmicisation
often involved the representation or re-creation of the object
that revealed the sacred via human means, in a way that was
not circumscribed by the place where the hierophany had ini-
tially occurred. For example, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
made from a tree and considered as manifesting the sacred,
could be represented in any given church and venerated as

2 Generally, in paganism the natural world—identified with the

cosmos—was considered eternal. See Mircea Eliade, The Myth of the
Eternal Return: Cosmos and History, trans. Willard R. Trask, new intro-
duction by Jonathan Z. Smith (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton Univer-
sity Press, 2005), p. 87. See also Katharina Volk, ‘“Heavenly Steps”:
Manilius 4.119-121 and its Background,’ in Heavenly Realms and E-
arthly Realities in Late Antique Reflections, ed. Ra’anan S. Boustan and
Anette Yoshiko Reed (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004),
pp. 34-35.
3 Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion,
trans. Willard R. Trask (New York: Harcourt Inc., 1987), pp. 20-22.
 Christ, Paradise, Trees, 115
and the Cross in the Byzantine Art of Italy

such, without the need to be close to Golgotha - the actual site

of the crucifixion - or to procure a relic from the true cross. In
any case, since, in the ancient world, the sacred was associated
with the realm of supernatural beings, God or the gods, then the
hierophany involved the manifestation of the whole cosmic
order fashioned by God or the gods. This included, generally
speaking, the celestial or heavenly, terrestrial or earthly, and
infernal or subterranean realms, making certain hierophanic
objects - natural and manufactured- meeting points for the
three cosmic tiers, and, thus, axes mundi or centers of the world.
This was the case especially with trees, which, because of their
vertical orientation, were considered as connecting “the earth
to the heavens above and the underworld below.”4 This percep-
tion of the orientation of an object such as a tree as intersecting
the cosmic tiers - irrespective of how many tiers are
represented5 - has persisted well into modernity.6 Of course,
while all ancient and medieval religions share the above men-
tioned behavioral characteristics, what is distinct for Christiani-
ty is that the sacred is revealed by our Lord Jesus Christ, who
discloses the truth concerning the reality of God as tree per-
sons. For this reason, from this point onwards the word ‘the-
ophany’ will be used instead of ‘hierophany’ as more appropri-
ately consistent with the revelation of the Trinitarian God in the
Old and New Testaments.
Returning to trees as objects through which the holiness was
manifested, in almost all of the cases where the spiritual signifi-
cance of trees as axes mundi can be observed, they appear as
such within a context that is likewise spiritual. This context can
generally be referred to as ‘paradise,’ from the Greek pa-
rádeisos, “which derives from the Median paridaiza, ‘enclosure,’

4 Carole M. Cusack, The Sacred Tree: Ancient and Medieval Manifestations

(Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011), p. xv.
5 Often, only heaven and earth were considered as being intersected.
6 This includes, for example, the persistent representation of the Glas-
tonbury Thorn as an axis mundi. Cusack, The Sacred Tree, p. xi.
116 Mario Baghos

pari being ‘around’ and daiza ‘wall.’”7 This is the term that the
translators of the Septuagint used for the garden of Eden as it
appears in the book of Genesis chapters 2-3, which in Hebrew
was simply called Gan Eden, ‘gan’ meaning ‘garden.’8 The
Mishnah describes paradise as pardes, meaning “orchard” in
Hebrew,9 with the flexibility of descriptions suggesting that
these terms indicate an experience just as much as they do an
actual topos, given that, from a literal point of view, Eden is
described in conflicting ways in the Hebrew Bible (the Christian
Old Testament)10 and Edenic imagery is applied to various
temporal and supra-mundane locations in both the Old and
New Testaments.11 Thus, unless indicated otherwise, in this
article, ‘paradise’ refers to an existential state or experience of
the grace of God or Christ, and not necessarily a literal garden
named ‘Eden.’ The same, it will be seen, can be said for the
following objects: trees, which as axes mundi, represent the

7 Jan N. Bremmer, Greek Religion and Culture, the Bible and the Ancient
Near East (Leiden and Boston, 2008), p. 36.
8 This is the English transliteration of the Hebrew. D. I. Kyrtatas,
Παράδεισος, trans. Deborah Whitehouse, in A History of Ancient Greek:
From the Beginnings to Late Antiquity, ed. A. F. Christidis (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 1137.
9 Shulamit Laderman, Images of Cosmology in Jewish and Byzantine Art:
God’s Blueprint of Creation (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2013), p. 143.
10 Specifically, Eden is presented as a mountain in Ezekiel 28 and a gar-
den in Genesis 2-3. For more information, see Annette Yoshiko Reed,
‘Enoch, Eden, and the Beginnings of Jewish Cosmography,’ in The
Cosmography of Paradise: The Other World from Ancient Mesopotamia
to Medieval Europe, ed. Alessandro Scafi (London: The Warburg Insti-
tute, 2016), pp. 67-94, esp. P. 72.
11 In Ezekiel 43:1, Edenic imagery is applied in relation to the eschatolo-
gically restored temple in Jerusalem, which, facing east (Ez 43:1)—the
symbolic location of Eden (Genesis 2:8)—became the source for flow-
ing waters (Ez 47:1-20), just like the river flowing from Eden men-
tioned in Gen 2:10. In the New Testament book of Revelation, the “new
Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God” (21:1-2) is described
as having Edenic qualities, such as the tree of life that appears within
the city (Rev 22:2).
 Christ, Paradise, Trees, 117
and the Cross in the Byzantine Art of Italy

existential experience of the intersection between heaven and

earth (and need not be literal trees but merely images); the
cross, when spoken of as a symbol and not the actual relic upon
which Christ was crucified;12 and the city of the new Jerusalem,
which can alternately be described as paradise, heaven, and
God’s kingdom.
Mosaics depicting trees and natural forms can be found across
the former Byzantine world, especially in contemporary Turkey
(particularly in Istanbul, formerly Constantinople, the capital of
the Byzantine Empire) and Italy. These mosaics include repre-
sentations of paradise usually taken to be the Garden of Eden
mixed with imagery from the book of Revelation; trees, includ-
ing the tree of life mentioned in Genesis; and the cross of Christ,
which was, of course, made from a tree but not exclusively de-
picted in its wooden form. All of these images -paradisal gar-
dens, trees, and the cross - were employed in relation to various
representations of Jesus Christ. While many of these mosaics in
Turkey have been destroyed,13 they can still be easily found
across Italy.

12 The relic of the true cross was ostensibly discovered by St Helen, the
mother of Constantine the Great, in the early fourth century. The an-
cient Byzantine historian, Socrates Scholasticus, gives one of the ear-
liest accounts of this discovery, which was elaborated upon in medi-
eval literature. See The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus
1.17 trans A. C. Zenos, in Socrates, Sozomenus: Church Histories, NPNF
(Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company,
1976), pp. 21-22. For later elaborations, see ‘The Coming of the Holy
Cross’ and the ‘Story of the Discovery of the Honourable and Life-
giving Cross,’ in Constantine and Christendom: The Oration to the
Saints, the Greek and Latin Accounts of the Discovery of the Cross, The
Edict of Constantine to Pope Sylvester, trans. Mark Edwards (Liverpool:
Liverpool University Press, 2007), pp. 63-80 and pp. 81-91 (respec-
tively).
13 The few images that do survive in Istanbul - in the church of the Holy
Saviour in Chora, for instance - are not enough to prove the wides-
pread nature of such images, which do appear frequently in the Byzan-
118 Mario Baghos

This article argues that the representations of paradise

(including the relevant arboreal imagery such as vines, acanthi,
and so on), trees, and the cross of Christ in the Byzantine art of
some select churches and monuments in Italy, including the
Mausoleum of Galla Placidia and the church of San Vitale - both
in Ravenna - the church of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Classe, and
the church of Santa Maria Assunta in Torcello, indicate the
paradisal experience. This is because, in the Byzantine mosaics
of these churches, paradise is usually depicted as a garden filled
with trees and including the cross.
While trees in the paradisal landscapes represented in these
churches, as well as the cross, constitute axes mundi since they
intersect the various regions of the cosmos, these images are
used only insofar as they help to support the representation of
Jesus Christ as the true, and only existentially significant, axis
mundi, as the eternal saviour who intersects heaven and earth.
But before addressing these, it is necessary to point out that
despite the loss of Byzantine administrative control in northern
Italy from the eighth century onwards, these regions continued
to be influenced by Byzantine aesthetics and style, so that the
mosaics contained within them - while ranging in provenance
from the sixth to twelfth centuries - can nevertheless all be con-
sidered Byzantine.
Moreover, I must first outline a Christian approach to trees as
axes mundi, which can be discerned in the Old and New Testa-
ment scriptures, the Apocrypha, and patristic literature. After
contextualizing the Christian conception of the tree, and after-
ward, the cross, as axes mundi, it is possible to assess the sym-
bolic significance of the appearance of these motifs in the Byz-
antine churches of Italy.

tine art of Italy. This is why I chose to address the latter exclusively in
this article.
 Christ, Paradise, Trees, 119
and the Cross in the Byzantine Art of Italy

2 Trees as Axes Mundi in Judaism and Christianity

In the second chapter of the book of Genesis, Eden, described as

a paradisal garden,14 is planted “in the east” (2:8) by God as an
abode for Adam and Eve. Adam, whose name means “human,”15
can be interpreted as the first literal human being, the first to
experience the spiritual state,16 or as representative of “the
whole of humanity.”17 Eve, as the “mother of all humanity,” can
also be seen as representative of the whole.18 God walks in
Eden, meaning that the garden - if we are to take it as a literal
topos - can be considered an axis mundi intersecting heaven
(represented by its closer proximity to God) and earth (repre-
sented by the garden). Despite this, what is significant is what
Eden represents. It is a profound illustration of the existential
state of being near to God, to whom Adam and Eve had direct
access.

14 Paradisal gardens, such as the Mesopotamian Dilmun and the Greek

isle of the Hesperides, are a recurring theme in ancient mythology. For
the former, see Samuel Noah Kramer (trans.), ‘Sumerian Myths and E-
pic Tales,’ in Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament,
ed. J. B. Pritchard (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969) pp.
37-38. For the latter, see Apollodorus, The Library 2.5.11, trans. James
George Frazer (London: William Heinemann, 1921), pp. 219-33.
15 Adam in Hebrew is the transliteration of the word for “human.” It was
translated as the proper name “Adam” in the Septuagint. Susan
Brayford, Genesis (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2007), p. 230.
16 This is the case in some authors in the patristic tradition—such as
saints Athanasius the Great, Cyril of Alexandria, Gregory Palamas, and
Silouan the Athonite—who appraise Adam “as the first exemplar in a
saintly series and not as an exceptional character.” Doru Costache,
‘Adam’s Holiness in the Alexandrine and Athonite Traditions,’ in Ale-
xandrian Legacy: A Critical Appraisal, ed. Doru Costache, Philip Kariat-
lis, and Mario Baghos (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Pub-
lishing, 2015), pp. 322-68, esp. p. 324.
17 Kristen E. Kvam, Linda S. Shearing and Valarie H. Zeigler, Eve and
Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Readings on Genesis and Gender
(Bloomington and Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1999), p. 398.
18 Ibidem, p. 171.
120 Mario Baghos

Eden was marked by two trees in the center of the garden, “the
tree of life (…) in the midst of the garden” along with “the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen 2:9). The latter is later
also described as being “in the middle of the garden” (Gen 3:3)
when Eve recounts to the serpent God’s warning that to eat
from the tree of knowledge would mean certain death. Biblical
exegetes have surmised that these trees symbolize ‘immortali-
ty’ in the case of the tree of life, and ‘wisdom’ in the case of the
tree of knowledge.19
The ordinance given by God for Adam and Eve not to eat from
the tree (Gen 2:17) has been described as a metaphor for
knowledge or experience for which they were not ready.20 The
tree of life, since it can be read as intersecting heaven and earth
in its vertical axis, can be described as transferring ‘immortali-
ty’ from the former to the latter. Since Genesis describes the
consequences of Adam’s and Eve’s eating of the fruit of the tree
of knowledge as “the eyes of both of them were opened, and
they realized that they were naked” (Gen 3:7), some scholars
have focused on this ‘realisation’ as an outcome of sexual inter-
course.21
Thus, one possible interpretation of the fruit of the tree is as a
metaphor for sex, and the argument for this is particularly
strong given that, before eating from the tree, “the man and his
wife were both naked, and were not ashamed” (Gen 2:25).

19 Tryggve N. D. Mettinger, The Eden Narrative: A Literary and Religio-

historical Study of Genesis 2-3, p. 60.
20 See the interpretation of St Gregory the Theologian who sees the tree
of knowledge as a metaphor for spiritual contemplation: “For the tree
is contemplation, according to my own contemplation, which is only
safe for those of mature disposition to undertake; but it is not good for
those still simpler and those greedy in their desire.” St Gregory the
Theologian, Oration 38: On the Nativity of Christ 12, in: Festal Orations:
St Gregory of Nazianzus, trans. Nonna Verna Harrison (Crestwood, NY:
St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2008), p. 69.
21 Victor P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis Chapters 1-17 (Grand Rapids,
MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1990), p. 164.
 Christ, Paradise, Trees, 121
and the Cross in the Byzantine Art of Italy

Moreover, one of the consequences for Eve’s partaking of the

tree is to experience pain in childbirth (Gen 3:16).
As mentioned, before partaking of the tree of knowledge, Adam
and Eve were close to God and, moreover, were called to till and
keep the earth; in other words, they were called to work to-
gether with God for the cultivation of paradise. The tilling and
keeping of the garden can represent either the world at large
or, from a mystical point of view, the inner lives of Adam and
Eve (for the passage can be read in various ways).22 Irrespec-
tive of which reading one takes, after partaking of the tree of
knowledge, Adam’s role in ‘tilling’ and ‘keeping’ the earth is
made difficult, and he, along with Eve, will eventually die (Gen
3:17-19). The latter is symbolized when God exiles them from
the garden of Eden, specifically from the axis mundi - the tree of
life - which was blocked by cherubim “and a sword flaming and
turning to guard the way” (Gen 3:24). Since Adam and Eve can
be seen as symbolizing all of humanity, then all human beings
can be considered either as suffering the consequences of their
punishment 23 or as ‘Adams’ and ‘Eves’ who easily fall into the
same trap as the ‘original’ couple. The Christian approach to
this exile from Eden is relevant, insofar as it denotes that all
human beings can be considered as having been cut off from the
tree of life, at least, as we shall see below, until Christ’s coming.

22 St Gregory the Theologian provides a mystical interpretation of ‘tilling’

related to Adam’s inner life: “The human being was a cultivator of im-
mortal plants [i.e. tiller of Eden], that is perhaps divine thoughts, both
the simpler and the more complete.” St Gregory the Theologian, Orati-
on 38: On the Nativity of Christ 12 (Harrison, 69).
23 This is not original sin which stipulates that all human beings since
Adam and Eve have inherited their “guilt and moral stain passed on
down through the human race by means of generative concupiscence.”
This Augustinian position is not accepted by the Orthodox Church
which believes that humanity merely “inherited Adam’s punishment of
corruptibility” (emphasis added). John Anthony McGuckin, The Ortho-
dox Church: An Introduction to its History, Doctrine, and Spiritual Cul-
ture (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2008), pp. 218, 262.
122 Mario Baghos

It is important to note that the story of the garden of Eden is

part of what is known as the J source in the book of Genesis,
thought to have been authored during the Davidic monarchy in
the eleventh century BC. The first temple in Jerusalem had been
planned by David, and it was his son, Solomon, who was re-
sponsible for its construction. This temple was constructed in
such a way as to symbolize Eden. For example, the monumental
pillars Jachin and Boaz stationed at the temple’s entrance have
been interpreted as the tree of life and the tree of knowledge in
Eden because both columns “were topped with capitals bearing
floral and arboreal arrangements,”24 as well as the other related
paradisal symbolism in the temple that was meant to recall
Eden.25 What is important to note here is that the temple re-
flects an attempt to recreate the circumstances where God
dwelt with people before Adam and Eve’s fall. It is, therefore, an
imago mundi, an image of the world, as well as an axis mundi
since God was considered as dwelling in the temple.
For the Jews, it was David’s kingdom, more than any other, that
was considered as perennially established by God with its cen-
ter at the temple in Jerusalem. In 2 Samuel, God informs David
through the prophet Nathan that “his kingdom shall be made

24 Victor Avigdor Hurowitz, ‘YHWH’s Exalted House – Aspects of Design

and Symbolism of Solomon’s Temple,’ in Temple and Worship in Bibli-
cal Israel, ed. John Day, pp. 63-110 (London and New York: T&T Clark,
2007), p. 81, 84.
25 Ibid., p. 73: Solomon’s temple contained three elements that call Eden
to mind. The first of these is the “molten sea” (1 Kings 7:23) or “round
water container” in the forecourt of the temple, made of bronze and
which can be understood as the source of the four waters flowing from
Eden. The second regards the debir or nave of the temple, “which was
covered with wood, and the walls carved with fruits, vegetables, and
flowers (…) whilst cherubim guard the inner sanctuary of the temple,”
as they guarded Eden. Peter J. Leithart, 1 & 2 Kings (Grand Rapids, MI:
Brazos Press, 2006), p. 56: And the third is the presence of the monu-
mental pillars Jachin and Boaz stationed at its entrance, meant to sym-
bolise the tree of life and the tree of knowledge addressed above.
 Christ, Paradise, Trees, 123
and the Cross in the Byzantine Art of Italy

sure forever” and that his “throne shall be established forever”

(2 Sam 7:16).
However, this was not to be: subsequent conquests of the city,
including the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 586/7 BC,
resulted in a re-interpretation of the promises made by God to
David regarding the eternal rule of his dynasty. Thus, ever since
the Babylonian exile, the Jews expected an eschatological mes-
siah who would re-inaugurate the Davidic line and re-establish
the kingdom of Israel, namely from the vantage point of the
temple (for example, Ez 40).
Our Lord Jesus Christ was often labeled as this Davidic Messiah
(Matthew 1:1, Luke 18:38), although he rejected this title (Mt
22:41-46), opting instead to be described as “Son of Man” in
order to recall the figure in the Old Testament book of Daniel—
“one like a Son of Man”—who is presented before the Ancient of
Days, interpreted by Christians as God the Father, and who is
given by his Father “dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all
peoples, nations, and languages should serve him” (Dan 7:13-
14). In other words, Christ reframes the promises made by God
to Israel to include the whole world. There would, therefore, be
no re-establishment of the Davidic monarchy from the vantage
point of the temple in Jerusalem with its paradisal imagery.
Christ is presented in the synoptic Gospels as prophesying the
destruction of the temple (Mt 24, Mark 13, Lk 21), which oc-
curred when the Romans besieged Jerusalem in AD 70.
Notwithstanding the many references to Christ as the Son of
Man and the Son of God,26 the Gospel writers used many axis

26 A. J. B. Higgins, The Son of Man in the Teaching of Jesus (Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1980), p. 3: although the appellation Son
of God obviously denotes Christ’s connection with God the Father, the
pre-existence, and hence divinity, of Christ is also implied when he is
called ‘Son of Man’ insofar as there existed “in pre-Christian apocalyp-
tic Judaism a concept of the eschatological Son of man, a transcendent
and pre-existent being whose primary function in the End-time would
be that of a judge, delivering the righteous and punishing the wicked.”
124 Mario Baghos

mundi motifs in order to describe the connection between

heaven and earth inaugurated by him. This includes tree or
arboreal imagery, which was re-signified in relation to Christ.
For instance, in John 15:1-8, Christ compares himself to a vine
and his disciples to its branches,
I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He
removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every
branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more
fruit (…) Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch
cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, nei-
ther can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are
the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear
much fruit because apart from me you can do nothing (Jn
15:1-2, 4-5).
Vines, like trees, are axes mundi that - since they can be vertical
- connect heaven and earth. This means that Christ, in
comparing himself to a vine, transfers the axis mundi symbol-
ism of the vine to himself. Here, Christ construes himself as the
personal or existential axis mundi of his disciples, apart from
whom they can accomplish nothing.
In the books of Jeremiah 2:21 and Hosea 10:1, Israel is com-
pared to a vine, and, in Isaiah 5:1-7, 27:2-6, to a vineyard,27
leading Frederick Dale Bruner to assert that in John 15:1 “Jesus
is (…) claiming to be the authentic Israel, in person.”28
In fact, the transference of axis mundi symbolism from Israel to
Christ reflected here is also described elsewhere in the Gospels,

This is important to note because, in the ensuing descriptions of Christ

as an axis mundi, the impression may be given that he intersects
heaven and earth because of his origin in the former. From an Ortho-
dox Christian perspective, Christ, the Son of God and Son of Man, is
beyond both heaven and earth, yet intersects them as their creator and
via his incarnation, ministry, ascension into heaven, and his second
coming.
27 As well as in Ezekiel 15:1-6, 17:1-10, and 19:10, where the descripti-
ons of Israel as a vine are related to its judgment.
28 Frederick Dale Bruner, The Gospel of John: A Commentary (Grand Ra-
pids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2012), p. 878.
 Christ, Paradise, Trees, 125
and the Cross in the Byzantine Art of Italy

where, in alluding to the temple of Jerusalem while referring to

his own body, Jesus says: “destroy this temple, and in three
days I will raise it up again” (Jn 2:19). Moreover, in the parable
of the wicked tenants (Mt 21:33-46, Mk 12:1-12, Lk 20:9-19),
Christ contrasts the vineyard symbolizing Israel to the “chief
cornerstone” associated with the temple in Jerusalem which, in
this parable, indicates—not the temple—but the murdered son
of the landowner who planted the vineyard, that is, Christ (the
landowner is God the Father).
Christ is thus the “chief cornerstone,” the one whom the build-
ers rejected, taking precedence to the temple of Jerusalem. Re-
lated to this, Christ, as we have seen, is depicted as prophesying
the destruction of the temple in AD 70. Christ’s crucifixion is
even portrayed as signifying this event when, upon his death,
the curtain of the temple is torn in two (Mk 15:28, Mt 27:51,
and Lk 23:45), rupturing the old center of the world. Since we
have seen that the temple was a recapitulation of Eden which
intersected heaven and earth, what could the transference of
axis mundi motifs to Christ signify other than the fact that he is
the new axis mundi, the new Eden, and the new locus of the
theophany since he is God in the flesh?
This latter sentiment is profoundly reflected in the book of Rev-
elation which ends with a description of a new/heavenly and
“holy city Jerusalem” (21:10) at the end of the world, the dis-
course concerning which is known in Christian theology as ‘es-
chatology,’ from the Greek word τὰ ἔσχατα meaning ‘the last
things.’ Using the number twelve and multiplications thereof to
signify God’s people, the author described the high wall of the
city as measuring 144 cubits, along with its twelve gates that
have twelve foundations upon which are “the twelve names of
the twelve apostles of the Lamb” (Rev 21:14), that is, Jesus
Christ, who is often described as the Lamb of God.
In light of this imagery, this city can only be interpreted as a
metaphor for the Church. The translation of the axis mundi
symbolism of the terrestrial temple to Christ is here finally
completed insofar as there is “no temple in the city” (Rev
126 Mario Baghos

21:22). Instead, “its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and
the Lamb” (Rev 21:22), from whose throne flows “the water of
life (…) through the middle of the street of the city” (Rev 22:1).
This harkens back to a prophecy in Ezekiel concerning the es-
chatologically-restored temple that is the source of the four
rivers that flowed from the central river in the garden of Eden
in Genesis 2:10-14. Here, however, it is God and the Lamb who
are the source of these waters (Jn 4:14), flanked by “the tree of
life, with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each
month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the na-
tions” (Rev 22:2).
The author of Revelation has here not only used the motif of the
tree of life as an axis mundi, but has employed it as a
hermeneutical device for interpreting the symbolism of the
tree’s appearance in Eden which has, along with the Edenic
waters, been transferred to the new or heavenly Jerusalem at
the centre of which is Christ the Lamb.
Ezekiel 47:12 mentions trees on either side of the paradisal
rivers flowing from the temple which, being everlasting, will
“bear fruit every month (…) their fruit will be for food, and their
leaves for healing.” While Grant R. Osborne,29 George Eldon
Ladd,30 and J. Massyngberde Ford31 highlight the literary
sources of the tree in the new Jerusalem - including Ezekiel
47:12 and 1 Enoch 25:4-5- they all miss that this tree, which we
saw in Genesis was an axis mundi, has precisely twelve kinds of
fruit, with the number twelve symbolising God’s people or the
Church. In other words, the tree can be seen as a metaphor
precisely for the participation of the people of God in this tree,
whose shade ‘heals the nations.’ Since Revelation speaks about

29 Grant R. Osborne, Revelation (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic,

2002), pp. 771-72.
30 George Eldon Ladd, A Commentary on the Revelation of John (Grand
Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1972), p. 287.
31 J. Massyngberde Ford, The Anchor Bible: Revelation (New York: Doub-
leday, 1975), pp. 345-46.
 Christ, Paradise, Trees, 127
and the Cross in the Byzantine Art of Italy

both the experience of the Church at the end times and its
current experience,32 then this process of healing would be
considered by Christians as ongoing, with its source in God and
the Lamb at the center of the new Jerusalem, which is the
Church of Christ.
It is God, or Jesus Christ,33 therefore, who provides access for
“those who wash their robes” - the saints - to “the tree of life
and may enter the city by the gates” (Rev 22:14). Moreover, it is
this tree of life, associated with Christ that is depicted in the
Byzantine churches of Italy. However, before addressing the
tree and its relationship with Christ in these churches, further
discussion of the significance of the cross is needed.

32 There are several instances in Revelation that demonstrate that the

text speaks about both the current and future experience of the
Church. The fall of Satan, described dramatically at the end of the book
(Rev 20:7-10), is also placed within the context of Christ’s ascension
(Rev 12:1-9), with the author implying that the “first casting down of
Satan (…) transpires as a result” of the Christ event. Ben Witherington
III, Revelation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 170.
Also, the use of Johannine terminology in chapter 21:3, namely, in rela-
tion to the “tent of God” having been made “among mortals” (Ἰδοὺ ἡ
σκηνὴ τοῦ θεοῦ μετὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων) who has made “his tent with
them” (καὶ σκηνώσει μετ᾽αὐτῶν) resonates with the prologue to the
Gospel of St John 1:14 which describes the incarnation of Christ as
follows: “And the Word became flesh and made his tent among us”
(Καὶ ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν). These aspects, a-
long with the fact that Christ has already defeated the devil, sin and
death—and has inaugurated the paradisal life for believers in his
Church—point to the broader Christian belief that whilst Christ has in-
augurated the kingdom of God in his person (an inauguration realised
in the saints and the Church), it will not be unilaterally distributed un-
til the eschaton, the last things. This is known in scholarship as the al-
ready/not yet tension, or, realised eschatology (already) and future
eschatology (not yet), respectively.
33 Considered here to be God, specifically God the Son or the Word (Lo-
gos) of God (see Rev 19:13).
128 Mario Baghos

3 The Cross as an Axis Mundi

The Gospel accounts do not describe the cross at length, other

than mentioning that it was carried by Simon of Cyrene (Mt
27:32, Mk 15:21, Lk 23:26), was adorned with a placard (the
titulus crucis) that described Jesus as “King of the Jews” (Mt
27:27, Mk 15:25, Lk 23:38, Jn 19:19), and that the crucifixion
took place on Golgotha, just outside the walls of Jerusalem (Mk
15:22, Mt 27:33, Lk 23:33, Jn 19:17).
The cross itself would not become an object of veneration until
its discovery by St Helen, mother of Constantine the Great, on
her pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the fourth century.34 After
that, it would be associated with miracles, healings, and even
have a feast day (14 September) dedicated to it in the Orthodox
Church. The cross as the main adornment of churches, there-
fore, dates from this period. In the interim, the apostle Paul
acknowledged the “power” and significance of the “message of
the cross” in 1 Corinthians: “it is foolishness to those who are
perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God”
(1:17-18). Here, St Paul was not referring to the power of the
actual cross, but to what the cross symbolizes, namely, the
death of Christ as the means through which God was made
known and has saved “those who believe” (1 Cor 1:21). Thus,
the saint exclaims, “we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling
block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom
God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God
and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:22-24).
Here, St Paul placed the emphasis squarely on Christ, through
whom God manifested his power and wisdom in the crucifixion.
The Annales historian, Georges Duby, pertinently summarised
the significance that the cross would take in the centuries to
come, pointing out its association with the tree: “As a cosmic
sign, the intersection of space and time, or a tree of life, it stood
for all of creation, and God had chosen it as the place on which

34 The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus 1.17 (Zenos, 21).

 Christ, Paradise, Trees, 129
and the Cross in the Byzantine Art of Italy

to suffer precisely because of its esoteric values.”35 According to

Meinrad Craighead, the early Church Fathers, upon whom Duby
probably based the above assertion, “recognized the world
tree” - which was a potent symbol in many ancient cultures -“as
the specific symbol of the cross, the true tree of life.”36 Thus we
see that the second-century bishop, St Melito of Sardis, could
refer to our Lord as “hanged on a tree” in relation to the cruci-
fixion.37 St Hippolytus of Rome spoke of the tree of the cross
similarly: as a tree that is at the center of the world and encom-
passes the whole cosmos, binding all its regions together.38 A
similar perception can be found in St Gregory of Nyssa’s The
Great Catechism, which describes the arms of the cross as
reaching out to the four cardinal points of the universe (north,
south, east and west) from a central axis.39
Returning to Hippolytus’ comments, he continued that it is
through the cross that death has been annulled by the “Cruci-
fied One,” who opens heaven, destroys hell, and gives life to the
universe.40 Indeed, that Christ defeats death is clear from the
very fact of his rising from the dead. However, in Christ’s de-
struction of hell, we have the development of a theme that is

35 Georges Duby, The Age of the Cathedrals: Art and Society, 980-1420,
trans. Eleanor Levieux and Barbara Thompson (Chicago: The Universi-
ty of Chicago Press, 1983), p. 86.
36 Meinrad Craighead, The Sign of the Tree in Images and Words (London:
Mitchell Beazley, 1979), p. 38.
37 St Melito of Sardis, On Pascha 70, trans. Alistair Stewart-Sykes, in On
Pascha: With the Fragments of Melito and Other Material Related to the
Quartodecimans (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2001),
p. 56.
38 See the translation of St Hippolytus’ De Pascha Homilia 6 (PG 59, 743-
5), in Hugo Rahner, Greek Myths and Christian Mystery (New York: Bib-
lo and Tannen, 1971), p. 67.
39 St Gregory of Nyssa, The Great Catechism 32 [i.e. the Catechetical Ora-
tion], in Gregory of Nyssa: Selected Works and Letters, trans. William
Moore and Henry Austin Wilson, NPNF (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1979), p. 500.
40 Hippolytus’ De Pascha Homilia 6 (PG 59, 743-5) (Rahner, 67-68).
130 Mario Baghos

depicted in the New Testament and elaborated upon in apocry-

phal literature.
For instance, the Gospel according to St Matthew describes
Christ’s death on Golgotha as being associated with the opening
of the nearby tombs, so that “many bodies of the saints who had
fallen asleep were raised” (27:52). In other words, these saints
experienced the resurrection upon Christ’s death. That Christ
has the power to raise the dead is clear in the story of his rais-
ing the young girl (Mt 9:18-26, Mk 5:35-43, Lk 8:40-56), the
widow’s son at Nain (Lk 11:7-17), and Lazarus (Jn 11:38-44).
Indeed, the mysterious concurrence of Christ’s death on the
cross and his raising of the dead to life (Mt 27:52) was contem-
plated at length by the earliest Christians who tried to make
sense of it in light of what would become known as the descent
into Hades motif.
This motif appears in Acts 2:31, in which St Peter describes
Christ as not having been abandoned to “the realm of the dead.”
Also, in 1 Peter 3:19, the Lord is described as having made
“proclamation to the spirits in prison” and, in Ephesians 4:9, St
Paul remarks that he descended into the “lower parts of the
earth.” This motif is perhaps best fleshed out in the apocryphal
Gospels, such as the Gospel of Nicodemus, which, though not
accepted as canonical scripture, exerted a great influence in the
tradition of the Church in both the East and the West. In this
apocryphal text, Christ is depicted as descending into the
depths of the underworld after his crucifixion. He enters Hades
by shattering its gates and barricades. Once there, he binds the
devil and raises Adam out of hell.41

41 The Gospel of Nicodemus, Acts of Pilate and Christ’s Descent into Hell
V(XXI)-IX(XXV), trans. Felix Scheidweiler, in New Testament Apocry-
pha, vol. 1: Gospels and Related Writings, eds. Wilhelm Schneemelcher
and R. McL. Wilson (Louisville, KE: Westminster John Knox Press,
1991), pp. 524-25. For examples from other apocryphal texts, see the
section ‘Apocryphal Literature,’ in Hilarion Alfeyev’s Christ the Conqu-
eror of Hell: the Descent into Hades from an Orthodox Perspective (Cre-
stwood, New York: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2009), pp. 20-34.
 Christ, Paradise, Trees, 131
and the Cross in the Byzantine Art of Italy

The correlation between Adam and Christ is important for this

assessment of Christian approaches toward trees. In the Gospel
of Nicodemus, Satan is mocked by Hades who claims that “all
which you gained through the tree of knowledge you have lost
through the tree of the cross.”42 In other words, the implication
of Hades’ statement is that Satan, in the form of a serpent, used
the tree of knowledge to deceive Adam, who lost participation
in the paradisal garden of Eden when he partook of the fruit
given to him by Eve, the consequence of which was death (Gen
3:19).
Now, Christ - already described by St Paul as the “last Adam” (1
Cor 15:45)43 - achieves what the first Adam could not by de-
stroying death with his resurrection from the dead via the new
tree, the tree of the cross. The cross is not here to be taken as an
axis mundi on its own, but only on account of Christ who de-
scends into hell to resurrect Adam whom he takes up to the
gates of heaven, which could be considered equivalent to Eden
if Eden is understood as an existential state.
Hence, in light of what we have seen in relation to the use of the
tree metaphor in Revelation 22:2, 14, and the Adamic imagery
utilised by St Paul and the Gospel of Nicodemus, the following
picture emerges: the earliest Christians re-construed the para-
dise narrative in Genesis in light of their experience of our Lord
Jesus Christ. In this construal, the following types-antitypes
emerge: the old Adam, who failed in Eden, finds his fulfillment
in the new, successful Adam—Jesus—who is victorious over
death; the tree of knowledge in Eden is overcome by the tree of
the cross, and the Edenic tree of life is, in Revelation, used as a
positive image for the succor of God’s people in a paradise
conditioned by Christ at its center surrounded by the tree of

42 The Gospel of Nicodemus, Acts of Pilate and Christ’s Descent into Hell VII
(XXIII) (Scheidweiler, 525).
43 Adam also means ‘man.’ Hence, when Christ calls himself ‘Son of Man’
in Hebrew, it would be ben Adam, meaning son of Adam and pointing,
in this case, to humanity in general.
132 Mario Baghos

life. As such, God’s people are once again given access to the
tree after Adam had been barred from it. In other words, the
paradisal Eden is now read in the light of the new Jerusalem
which, having no temple, is conditioned by Christ the axis mun-
di, with the Edenic imagery being retained in the form of the
tree growing on either side of the river flowing through the city.
This imagery of paradise, the tree of life, and the cross of Christ
are symbolically depicted and arranged in the Byzantine art of
the churches of Italy. Since not many ‘arboreal’ images survive
from the Byzantine period in the former capital of the Byzan-
tine Empire, Constantinople, it is essential to look for Byzan-
tine-inspired images in other places influenced by the Byzan-
tine aesthetic. This includes Italy, the northern parts of which
were under the aegis of Byzantium until the eighth century.44
Such images demonstrate that these motifs, articulated theolog-
ically in the Old and New Testament scriptures, the Apocrypha,
and patristic tradition, were incorporated into churches in-
spired by the Byzantine aesthetic in order to create the impres-
sion that the ecclesial space is a recapitulation of the paradisal
state with Christ as its focal point.

4 Ravenna

Ravenna had a chequered history in late antiquity. The imperial

capital of Western Roman emperors since AD 400, it became
the capital of the Ostrogoth invaders from 493-540, until the
Byzantines - during the reign of the emperor Justinian - wrested
control from them and established a Byzantine exarchate there
that lasted until 751.45

44 Much of the south of Italy, from Naples to Reggio, was re-conquered by

the Byzantines in the ninth and tenth centuries only to be lost entirely
in the eleventh.
45 Deborah Mauskopf Deliyannis, Ravenna in Late Antiquity (Cambridge,
NY: Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 1.
 Christ, Paradise, Trees, 133
and the Cross in the Byzantine Art of Italy

Ravenna housed several churches and church-related struc-

tures that were later appropriated and redesigned by Justinian,
including the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia (daughter of emperor
Theodosius I), the church of San Vitale, and the Basilica of
Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, as well as a baptistery. Except for the
mausoleum, which was built in the fifth century, all of these
buildings date from the beginning-to-middle of the sixth centu-
ry. The baptistery belonged to the Arians, a group that believed
Christ to be subordinate to God the Father, and thus not eternal
and divine, but a created being.46
Arianism was refuted at the council of Nicaea held in 325,
which was the first ecumenical council. This council affirmed
the Orthodox doctrine - consistent with the Church’s experience
from its beginnings - that Christ is of ‘one essence’ with God the
Father and therefore divine and eternal,47 but Arianism persist-
ed in some areas of the Roman empire, including those popu-
lated by the Goths.48
Theodoric, the Ostrogothic king of Italy who reigned between
475-526, was an Arian, and he originally dedicated Sant’ Apolli-
nare Nuovo to Christ the Redeemer. It was rededicated by
Justinian, who was Orthodox (and thus, an adherent of Nicaea),
after he had conquered Ravenna, to St Martin of Tours - an
opponent of Arianism - before undergoing a third dedication in
the ninth century “when the bones of Saint Apollinaris,
Ravenna’s first bishop, were transferred from their original
burial place in Classe, roughly three miles outside of Ravenna,
to a crypt constructed especially for them beneath the church of
Saint Martin.”49 Hence, the basilica was renamed Sant’ Apollina-

46 Franz Dünzl, A Brief History of the Doctrine of the Trinity in the Early
Church, trans. John Bowden (London and New York: T&T Clark, 2007),
p. 55.
47 Ibid., p. 57.
48 Ibid., pp. 130-31.
49 Joachim Poeschke, Italian Mosaics, 300-1300, trans. Russell Stockman
(New York and London: Abbeville Press Publishers, 2010), p. 144.
134 Mario Baghos

re Nuovo, to distinguish it from Sant’ Apollinare in Classe - the

original burial place of St Apollinaris - to be addressed below.
In some of the Ravenna churches, such as Sant’ Apollinare
Nuovo, paradisal imagery is limited to palm trees, flowers, and
grass acting as backgrounds to - and interspersed among - rep-
resentations of male and female martyrs in procession toward
Christ and the Mother of God, respectively.50 The same is the
case with the Arian baptistery that depicts, on the underside of
its dome, the apostles surrounding Christ with palm trees inter-
spersed between each of the apostles.51
The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, and the church of San Vitale
also clearly demonstrate arboreal imagery. The Mausoleum of
Galla Placidia is in a cruciform shape and, on the underside of
the square turret at the center of the structure, depicts the star-
ry firmament with a cross at its center.
The circular pattern of the dome and the concentric pattern of
the stars surrounding the cross indicate that the dome is an
image of the cosmos.52 Since the symbol of the cross, as we have
seen, intersects the four cardinal points, the cross’ placement at
the center of the dome of a cruciform building is significant.
Both the cross and the circle are here being used concurrently
to signify the cosmos and, in the case of the former, the salva-
tion that is inaugurated by Christ in its behalf.

50 Deborah Mauskopf Deliyannis, Ravenna in Late Antiquity, pp. 141, 147,

149, 158-59. The three Magi offering gifts to the Virgin Mary are also
depicted (pp. 169-70).
51 Ittai Weinryb, ‘A Tale of Two Baptistries: Royal and Ecclesiastical
Patronage in Ravenna,’ Assaph 7 (2002), pp. 41-58, esp. p. 41.
52 Steven Runciman, Byzantine Art and Civilization (London: The Folio
Society, 1975), p. 18.
 Christ, Paradise, Trees, 135
and the Cross in the Byzantine Art of Italy

Picture 1: The cross on the underside of the dome of the Mausoleum of

Galla Placidia (photo by author).

The lunettes supporting the barrel vaults that constitute the

undersides of the arms of the cross contain representations of
various saints, including, prominently, St Lawrence, and also a
mosaic of Christ as the Good Shepherd. Arboreal motifs adorn
the barrel vaults and the lunettes of the eastern and western
arms of the mausoleum. Especially, the vaults are infused with
the spirals of acanthus plants - from which spring the four
evangelists - recalling Christ’s words that he is the true vine and
his disciples the branches (Jn 15:1).
At the centre of both vaults, acting as the convergence points
for the images of the four evangelists, are Christograms - from
the Chi-Rho or first two letters of the name ‘Christ’ - as well as
the Greek letters alpha (Α) and omega (Ω) that Christ uses to
describe himself, in Revelation, as the beginning and the end of
136 Mario Baghos

all things (Rev 1:17, 21:6, 22:12). Thus, Christ is the focal point
of the orientation of the saints and both the beginning and ter-
minus of the cosmos represented by the cruciform shape of the
building, as well as in the mosaic of the cross in its center. On
the lunettes formed at the ends of these barrel vaults are fur-
ther acanthi and deer drinking from small ponds, the latter
constituting “symbols of devotion and baptism”53 since they
obediently “drink of the water of salvation.”54

Picture 2: Acanthi, deer, and the Chi-Rho in the Mausoleum of Galla Placid-
ia (photo by author).

It is clear from this arboreal imagery - which is also present

around the image of Christ as the Good Shepherd that is above
the entrance to the mausoleum on the inside - that the building
combines paradise and cross symbolism. The cruciform struc-

53 Deborah Mauskopf Deliyannis, Ravenna in Late Antiquity, p. 78.

54 Ibid., p. 82.
 Christ, Paradise, Trees, 137
and the Cross in the Byzantine Art of Italy

ture testifies to this, as well as the depiction of the cross on the

underside of the dome. This cosmic cross, which intersects the
cardinal points in both the architectonic design and the dome-
imagery of the mausoleum, is filled with paradisal images. It
thereby denotes Christ’s inauguration, through the cross, of the
paradisal experience for the whole cosmos: this experience
being represented by the trees, or in this case, plants (that is,
the acanthi) of paradise that intersect heaven and earth, along
with the cross, as axes mundi. All of these images represent
Christ - via the cross - as the true vine and locus of this struc-
ture.
San Vitale was commissioned by the bishop Ecclesius during
the Ostrogothic period in Italy. The church was named after an
early Christian martyr - about whom little is known with cer-
tainty55 - and was dedicated by Ecclesius’ successor, Maximian,
in 547, after the emperor Justinian had conquered Ravenna.
Octagonal in shape, with a “domed octagonal core” surrounded
by an ambulatory,56 the church was the outcome of “the most
up-to-date architectural ideas from Constantino-ple.”57 It is
renowned for the quality of the mosaics in its sanctuary or altar
area, which juts out on the eastern side of the church as a high
vaulted apse, “polygonal on the exterior and circular on the
interior,” and moves beyond the building’s octagonal frame.”58

55 Deborah Mauskopf Deliyannis, Ravenna in Late Antiquity, p. 224: Apart

from the fact that St Vitalis is mentioned by St Ambrose as a “soldier of
consular rank,” who is “martyred in Ravenna after he gives encoura-
gement to a doctor named Ursicinus when the latter is being tortured
for his adherence to Christianity.”.
56 Ibid., p. 227.
57 Ibid., p. 223.
58 Ibid., p. 227.
138 Mario Baghos

Picture 3: The vaulted apse and sanctuary at the eastern end of San Vitale
(photo by author).

Symbolically, the octagon is often used to refer to the ‘eighth

day’ of God’s eschatological kingdom that was reflected upon
extensively in patristic writings. St Basil the Great, for example,
referred to the ‘eighth day’ as beyond the seven-day week of
recurrent time and as intersecting Sunday whereby it images
 Christ, Paradise, Trees, 139
and the Cross in the Byzantine Art of Italy

“the age to come,” i.e., God’s kingdom.59 Octagonal churches can

be found as early as Constantine’s church of the Nativity in
Bethlehem that consisted of an eight-sided structure covering
the cave of Christ’s birth and was connected to a basilica.60 Two
centuries later, Justinian’s church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus
- which acted as the prototype for his famous Hagia Sophia (Ho-
ly Wisdom) - also contained eighth-day symbolism in its dome,
which is supported by eight columns that “form an octagon
placed inside an irregular square.”61 It is not surprising, there-
fore, to find such octagonal designs repeated in Ravenna, which
was the principal Byzantine duchy in Italy until the Lombard
King Aistulf conquered it in 751.62
The mosaics of San Vitale are rich in paradisal symbolism. Two
“panels situated on either side of the altar,” directly beneath the
eastern facing apse, “depict two processions, converging on the
altar, led by the Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora”63
who head toward Christ with the Eucharistic gifts, that is, the
bread and wine that are turned into the body and blood of
Christ during the divine liturgy, in their hands. Related to this,
the lunettes that make up the vaults in the sanctuary are also
covered with “Old Testament narrative scenes, to be

59 St Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit 27.66, trans. Stephen Hildebrand
(Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2011), p. 106.
60 Jonathan Bardill, Constantine: Divine Emperor of the Christian Golden
Age (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), p. 258. See the
church’s design on ibid., p. 260.
61 Richard Krautheimer, Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture (New
Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1986), p. 203. This design
was repeated in Holy Wisdom’s baptistery, which was also octagonal.
62 Judith Herrin, Margins and Metropolis: Authority Across the Byzantine
Empire (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2013), p.
224.
63 Felicity Harley McGowan, ‘Byzantine Art in Italy: Sixth Century Raven-
na as a Matrix of Confluence?’ in Crossing Cultures: Conflict, Migration
and Convergence, ed. Jaynie Anderson, pp. 144-47 (Melbourne: Mie-
gunyah Press, 2009), p. 145.
140 Mario Baghos

interpreted eucharistically.”64 Of immediate interest to us are

the mosaics in the apse itself and the vaulted dome that rises
both in front of and above it.

Picture 4: The Lamb of God intersecting the cosmos surrounded by arbor-

eal images on the dome’s underside (photo by author).

The vaulted dome is divided into four sections, the apexes of

which culminate in a circular depiction of the cosmos with the
Lamb of God, a symbol that the book of Revelation associates
with Jesus Christ (Rev 21:22), at its center. In John’s Gospel, St
John the Baptist described Christ as “the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29). This is an allusion to
Isaiah 53:7 which tells of the coming of God’s intermediary
agent who would restore Israel (i.e. God’s people), the suffering
servant who “was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open
his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a

64 Ibid., p. 146.
 Christ, Paradise, Trees, 141
and the Cross in the Byzantine Art of Italy

sheep before its shearers was silent, so he did not open his
mouth.”
In Revelation 13:8, the crucifixion is given a cosmic valence
since Christ is described as “the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world” or cosmos. This means that Christ’s sacrifice in
behalf of the universe was prefigured at its very beginning. This
explains the appearance of the Lamb of God in San Vitale at the
center of a circle - a symbol for the cosmos - filled with stars.
Also important is the description of Christ as replacing the tem-
ple in the New Jerusalem in Revelation, so that “its temple is the
Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (Rev 21:22), around
whom is the tree of life we first saw mentioned in regards to the
garden of Eden. If we are to connect Revelation 13:8 to
Revelation 21:22, we discern a confluence of protology, the
discourse concerning the creation of the world, and teleology or
eschatology, the discourse concerning the end of the world or
‘last things’: the Lamb of God is slain from the foundation of the
cosmos to inaugurate the paradisal state metaphorically
described as the New or Edenic Jerusalem, the center of which
is Christ the Lamb and which will be fully inaugurated at the
end of time. However, Christ, the common agent of both protol-
ogy and eschatology as described here, has already come to
earth, meaning that something of the Edenic Jerusalem is avail-
able in the here and now, namely in the Church through which
Christians can have a foretaste of the paradisal state.
We have seen that in the New Jerusalem - the Church - this par-
adisal state is symbolized by the tree of life, which, having been
‘closed’ to Adam and Eve, is once again made available through
Christ’s sacrifice. In Ravenna, the tree of life is expressed by
“flower- and fruit-filled plant motifs”65 circling the Lamb, like
the tree of life in Revelation which surrounds God and the Lamb
“with its twelve kinds of fruit (…) and the leaves of the tree are
for the healing of the nations” (Rev 22:2). As described above,

65 Deborah Mauskopf Deliyannis, Ravenna in Late Antiquity, 248.

142 Mario Baghos

the number twelve can symbolize God’s people. Moreover,

acanthus, floral, and fruit images appear in the decorative
bands that distinguish the four sections of the vault with the
Lamb at its center. These arboreal images, that also appear in
the spaces within these bands, are surrounded by four angels
presumably, the four mentioned as standing at the four corners
of the earth in Revelation 7:1 - who hold up the cosmos with the
Lamb at its center. These motifs symbolize that within the
Church generally, and this church building, in particular, the
angelic and earthly worlds are intertwined as Christ makes
available - through God’s paradisal people represented by the
trees/plants/fruits- the spiritual fruit necessary for the healing
of the cosmos. A realized eschatology - already made clear by
the octagonal shape of the building - is therefore manifested in
the art and architecture of this church that does not, however,
elide the anticipation of the future ‘last things.’ Rather, it signi-
fies that God’s promises in Christ are available in the here and
now. As implied by the Eucharistic images throughout the sanc-
tuary, the liturgical rites that took place in this building - culmi-
nating in the partaking of Christ’s body and blood in the Eucha-
rist -were meant to bestow immediate participation in Christ
upon the believer.

Picture 5: Christ seated atop the globe with paradisal imagery in the apse
of San Vitale (photo by author).
 Christ, Paradise, Trees, 143
and the Cross in the Byzantine Art of Italy

Below the vaulted dome, the half-domed apse depicts a young,

beardless Christ, haloed and wearing a purple chlamys (a
Greek-style cloak), seated on top of a blue globe symbolizing
the earth. In his left hand, he holds a scroll marked by seven
seals that, in the book of Revelation (6:1-17, 8:1-5), are opened
to inflict judgment upon the earth. In his right hand, he extends
a crown of martyrdom to St Vitalis. Flanked by two angels and
by bishop Ecclesius on his left, the globe upon which Christ is
seated is resting upon a paradisal garden full of flowers through
which flow four rivers with their sources beneath Christ.
These rivers are meant to call to mind the four rivers flowing
from Eden described in Genesis 2:10-14, as well as the river of
life mentioned in connection with the New Jerusalem in Revela-
tion 22:1. Here, once again, the garden of Eden and the eschato-
logical New Jerusalem are conflated, protology and teleology
intertwine. Just as the fruits nourish God’s people and the na-
tions in the vaulted dome, so too do the rivers of life flow from
Christ, the master of the world, who in John’s Gospel is de-
scribed as offering the Samaritan woman the water of eternal
life (Jn 4:13-15). Thus, when considered within the broader
context of the sanctuary, with its representations of Christ the
Lamb at the centre of the world surrounded by arboreal ar-
rangements and the angels above it and the emperor and em-
press in procession with their retinues heading toward Christ,
the image of Christ seated atop the globe is the nexus of the
whole arrangement. Christ is, therefore, the true axis mundi, the
center of the world and its master, and the Church, in San Vi-
tale, deployed the axis mundi motif of the vine to support this
point and to remind believers that, connected to Christ, they
participate in the life of paradise, in the Edenic Jerusalem.

5 Classe

Sant’Apollinare in Classe was built upon the tomb of St Apolli-

naris, who was, according to tradition, the first bishop of Ra-
144 Mario Baghos

venna and was buried just outside the city, in Classe, in the first
century AD. The sixth-century basilica comprises three main
aisles, is columned, and culminates at its easternmost end in a
triumphal arch and a large central apse that contains, and is
surrounded by, mosaics depicting Christ, paradisal trees, and
the tree of the cross.

Picture 6: The apse and altar area of Sant’ Apollinare in Classe (photo by
author).
The arch surrounding the apse is marked by a jeweled medal-
lion of a bearded Christ Pantokrator (‘ruler of all’) at its apex
being supplicated by anthropo-zoomorphic representations of
the four evangelists.66 Below this, the arch of the apse has been
utilized as a mountain, an axis mundi. Repeating a motif that we
also find in San Vitale in Ravenna, the mountain has two cities
on either side, Jerusalem on the left and Bethlehem on the right.
Two processions of six sheep, twelve in all, exit both cities and
converge upon the Pantokrator, the number twelve symbolizing

66 Runciman, Byzantine Art and Civilization, p. 43.

 Christ, Paradise, Trees, 145
and the Cross in the Byzantine Art of Italy

either Christ’s disciples or the people of God generally. Twelve

sheep are also to be found at the base of the apse, six on either
side of St Apollinaris, who is depicted in a paradisal field filled
with trees, which can be interpreted as axes mundi.

Picture 7: The cross intersecting the cosmos (photo by author).

St Apollinaris extends his arms toward heaven (the orans posi-

tion) in supplication to the image above him, which includes the
face of Christ at the center of a cross that intersects the cosmos,
the latter indicated by a large medallion circling the cross that
is filled with stars. On either side of this medallion are the Old
Testament prophets Elijah on the left and Moses on the right,
both in states of supplication, with the hand of God giving the
blessing directly above it. Elijah and Moses appeared at Christ’s
transfiguration, where he disclosed his divine glory, on Mount
Tabor (Mt 17:1-8, Mk 9:2-8, Lk 9:28-36). St Matthew described
this transfiguration as follows:
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his
brother John and led them up a high mountain, by them-
146 Mario Baghos

selves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face

shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.
Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking
with him … While [Peter] was still speaking, suddenly a
bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud, a
voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him, I am
well pleased; listen to him!” When the disciples heard this,
they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Je-
sus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be
afraid.” And when they looked up, they saw no one except
Jesus himself alone. As they were coming down the moun-
tain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until
the Son of Man has been raised from the dead”
(Mt 17:1-3, 5-9).
At face value, it is difficult to see how the image of Christ at the
center of a cross intersecting the cosmos could represent the
transfiguration. But that it does so is clear from the following:
that Elijah and Moses are depicted on either side of the cross;
that the hand of God, presumably that of the Father who ac-
claims his Son in the Gospel passage, appears above it; and, that
there are three sheep directly below the cross who symbolize
saints Peter, James, and John. The apse itself, in the shape of a
mountain, can be interpreted as Mount Tabor. Admittedly, this
is a curious depiction of the transfiguration, but that there is a
connection between the transfiguration and the crucifixion is
clear insofar as Christ informs his disciples not to disclose what
had taken place on Tabor “until the Son of Man has been raised
from the dead” (Mt 17:9). Hence, the transfiguration is
preached after the crucifixion, which - because it ends in the
resurrection - manifests the glory of Christ not just to the disci-
ples, but to the whole universe.
In the church of Sant’Apollinare in Classe axis mundi motifs are
also utilized in a way that supports the representation of Christ
as the real center of the cosmos. In addition to being located at
the apex of the arch, Christ is also at the center of the apse em-
bedded into the arch, his face appearing in the center of a cross
that symbolizes both his transfiguration and the fact that his
 Christ, Paradise, Trees, 147
and the Cross in the Byzantine Art of Italy

resurrection has cosmic ramifications. The latter is confirmed

by the words that appear at the top and bottom of the cross.
Directly above the cross’ vertical axis is the Greek acronym
ΙΧΘΥΣ (ichthys), which is based on the first letters of the Greek
words for “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Saviour.” That he is the sav-
ior of the cosmos is not just represented by the image of the
cross intersecting the cosmos but by the words in Latin at the
base of the cross, SALVS MVNDI, meaning “Saviour of the
World.” On either side of the transverse bar of the cross are the
letters alpha and omega, the former on the left and the latter on
the right. We have seen above that these letters are used by
Christ in Revelation where he describes himself as “Alpha and
the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end”
(Rev 22:13). If we are to take the cross at the center of the apse,
with the letters alpha and omega on either side of it - as well as
the acclamations regarding Christ at the top and bottom and the
image of Christ at its center - at face value, then this image not
only intersects the cosmos depicted in the medallion, but is
itself an image of the world. According to this image, Christ is
the center and the circumference of all things. The other axis
mundi motifs used in this apse mosaic, including the paradisal
trees that surround the cross and the image of St Apollinaris, all
converge upon Christ, the true axis mundi.

6 Torcello

Torcello is one of the northernmost satellite islands of the Ve-

netian lagoon, part of the region known as the Veneto, and pre-
dates the settlement of Venice as a commercial center. It grew
out of the dispersal of refugees that took place in northern Italy
in the sixth century during the invasion of the Lombards.67 Tor-

67 Frederic C. Lane, Venice, a Maritime Republic (Baltimore, MA: The

Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973), p. 4.
148 Mario Baghos

cello even predates Venice as an important maritime center. Its

emporium “fitted well into the Byzantine commercial system as
a source of supplies and an outlet for Byzantine wares.”68 The
decline of Byzantine administrative control in northern Italy
from the eighth century onwards - marked especially by the
capture of the duchy of Ravenna - created the space for the as-
cendancy and independence of the Veneto.
Nevertheless, the Veneto - including Torcello - continued to be
influenced by Byzantine aesthetics regarding art and architec-
ture.69 Nowhere is this better reflected than in relation to Tor-
cello’s basilica, Santa Maria Assunta, dedicated by the Byzantine
exarch of Ravenna during the reign of the emperor Heraclius in
639.70 The church was rebuilt in 1088, and it is difficult to re-
construct the earlier building. However, the mosaic program of
the extant rectangular structure, which culminates in an enor-
mous eastern apse, can still be seen and admired. It houses an
eleventh century mosaic of the Mother of God holding the Christ
child, beneath which are representations of the twelve apostles
and St Heliodorus of Altino, whose relics are housed within the
church.71
Opposite the apse is a mosaic of the Last Judgment, dating from
the eleventh century (but which underwent repairs in the
twelfth century), that richly depicts in a series of bands the
various interconnected activities of Christ in a way that recalls
the New Testament crucifixion and apocalypse scenes, the
apocryphal descent into Hades motif analysed above, the entry
into paradise, the judgment and condemnation of sinners, and
the exaltation of the saints.

68 Ibid., p. 5.
69 Ibid.
70 John Julius Norwich, A History of Venice (New York: Vintage Books,
1989), p. 11.
71 Thomas F. Madden, Venice: A New History (New York: Viking, 2013), p.
23.
 Christ, Paradise, Trees, 149
and the Cross in the Byzantine Art of Italy

Picture 8: The mosaic wall at the western end of the church of Santa Maria
Assunta (photo by author).

Picture 9: The crucified Christ and the descent into Hades, with Christ
raising Adam (photo by author).
150 Mario Baghos

In the top band, at the apex of the scene, is a depiction of the

crucifixion with Christ being lamented over by the Virgin on his
right and St John the Evangelist on his left. Beneath the cross is
a skull, denoting not only the name of Golgotha - the hill upon
which Christ was crucified - as the “Place of the Skull” (Mt
27:33, Mk 15:22, Jn 19:17) but also the skull of Adam. Accord-
ing to Mircea Eliade:
For Christians, Golgotha was situated at the center of the
world, since it was the summit of the cosmic mountain and
at the same time where Adam had been created and bur-
ied. Thus the blood of the Saviour falls upon Adam’s skull,
buried precisely at the foot of the Cross, and redeems
him.72
According to this interpretation - which Eliade admitted is pre-
served only in “folklore”73 - Golgotha, like Tabor, is an axis
mundi, the place where Adam was created and interred and the
locus from which Christ redeemed him. Thus, the axis mundi of
the cross and the axis mundi of the mountain combine in this
portrayal of the crucifixion. The application of this interpreta-
tion to this mosaic is confirmed by the second band, directly
beneath the crucifixion scene, which is a depiction of what
would become known in the West as the ‘harrowing of hell,’ the
descent into Hades which we saw above was hinted at in the
New Testament and in apocryphal texts.
In this mosaic, beneath the crucified Jesus is a depiction of him
triumphantly holding the cross like a military banner or laba-
rum, as he clutches Adam by the hand and ascends from Hades
after having destroyed its doors and fetters that are depicted in
a disordered pile, along with a defeated Satan, beneath his feet.
Eve is next to the kneeling Adam, and both supplicate Christ -

72 M. Eliade, The Myth of the Eternal Return, p. 14.

73 Ibidem: “The belief that Golgotha is situated at the center of the world
is preserved in the folklore of the Eastern Christians.”
 Christ, Paradise, Trees, 151
and the Cross in the Byzantine Art of Italy

the new Adam - who will also raise Eve out of hell.74 Christ here
succeeds where the old Adam had failed. Hades’ proclamation
to Satan in the Gospel of Nicodemus that “all which you gained
through the tree of knowledge you have lost through the tree of
the cross”75 is here represented by Christ who is holding his
cross - made from a tree- while trampling Satan underfoot.
In restoring the old Adam along with Eve, Christ redeems all
those who had died before his coming. The faithful departed are
represented in this mosaic through some saints, such as David,
Solomon, John the Baptist, and the three youths from the fur-
nace episode in Daniel (3:23), as well as a host of undesignated
figures to Christ’s left. According to another apocryphal text
that also describes the descent into Hades, The Testament of the
Twelve Patriarchs, Christ restores this host of saints to Eden,
here clearly seen as an image of the paradisal state.76
At the apex of this mosaic, as well as in its second band, the axis
mundi motif of the cross is used to support the representation
of Christ as the agent of the resurrection of Adam and Eve and
indeed all of humanity. Directly underneath the descent into
Hades is the third band of the mosaic that features Christ at the
second coming. He is depicted within a mandorla surrounded
by saints who accompany him in his judgment of the earth. In
the fourth band, angels ‘wind up’ the elements of the cosmos
and, in the fifth band, a lake of fire that proceeds from the image
of Christ in the mandorla above culminates in a judgment scene
on the right, whereas on the left (Christ’s right-hand side) vari-
ous saints, including the Mother of God and the thief crucified
with Christ (and holding his cross), are depicted in paradise.

74 This is not referred to in the Gospel of Nicodemus but is part of Ortho-

dox Christian tradition.
75 The Gospel of Nicodemus, Acts of Pilate and Christ’s Descent into Hell VII
(XXIII) (Scheidweiler, p. 525).
76 Testament of Dan 5, trans. Hilarion Alfeyev in Christ the Conqueror of
Hell: The Descent into Hades from an Orthodox Perspective (Crestwood,
NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2009), p. 23.
152 Mario Baghos

Picture 10: The Mother of God and the thief in paradise (photo by author).

Paradise, as elsewhere, is here indicated with the use of trees,

flowers, and other greenery. Interestingly, in this image a cher-
ub is depicted on the door to paradise, perhaps covering the
tree of life insofar as there are some branches above the door,
giving the impression that there is a tree behind it. We have
seen that, in Genesis 3:24, God blocked Eden with a cherub
holding “a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the
tree of life.” Here, however, the saints have access to paradise
and presumably to the tree of life, on account of the ministry
and activity of Christ, both during his earthly sojourn and at his
second coming.

7 Conclusion

In the Byzantine art of Italy addressed herein, we can discern

the material outcomes of serious theological reflection on para-
dise, trees, and the cross as symbols that are connected to
Christ. It is clear that Christ is connected to paradise since he is
 Christ, Paradise, Trees, 153
and the Cross in the Byzantine Art of Italy

the new Adam, the one who inaugurates the paradisal state or
experience - described as Eden - within the Church, the New
Jerusalem. Other mosaics in the Cappella Palatina in Palermo,
dating from the Norman period (twelfth century), even depict
Christ as creating Adam and Eve within Eden. Thus, the Lamb
slain “from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8) is the agent
of creation, the one who inaugurated the paradisal state in the
beginning, who re-inaugurated it via his resurrection, and who
will establish it permanently at his second coming. The confla-
tion of protological and teleological imagery is apparent in San
Vitale in Ravenna, where, in the vaulted dome, Christ the Lamb
is depicted in the center of the cosmos, beneath which is an
image of Christ enthroned upon the globe that utilizes motifs
from both Genesis and the book of Revelation.
In any case, Christ’s re-inauguration of the paradisal state, de-
picted in the mosaics above through arboreal imagery, was
accomplished via his crucifixion: the cross constituting an axis
mundi that transfers Adam, who had perished through a tree,
from Hades to heaven. In the mausoleum of Galla Placidia in
Ravenna, as well as in Sant’ Apollinare in Classe and Santa Ma-
ria Assunta in Torcello, the cross is depicted in various ways. In
the mausoleum and Sant’ Apollinare, it intersects the cosmos as
an axis mundi.
In Santa Maria Assunta, the cross is depicted as a triumphal
symbol, the means through which Christ resurrects Adam and
all of humanity. However, that the crosses, just like the paradis-
al images (including trees) depicted in these mosaics are sub-
ordinate to representations of Christ is made clear from his
precedence in all of these images. In San Vitale, he is seated
upon the world as its master; in Sant’ Apollinare, he appears at
the center of the cross, with acclamations concerning him
marking the outside of each of its four arms; and, in Santa Maria
Assunta, he is the agent of resurrection and judgment, par ex-
cellence.
Christ is, therefore, the personal or existential axis of the cos-
mos, facilitating participation in the life of heaven. The use of
154 Mario Baghos

other axis mundi motifs, including the trees in paradise and the
cross, merely reinforces this. A final image, from the church of
San Clemente in Rome, makes this point abundantly clear. Alt-
hough created in the twelfth century, at a time when Byzantine
administrative control in Italy was over, the mosaic in the apse
at the eastern end of this church is nonetheless influenced by
Byzantine aesthetics. It depicts the crucifixion with the cross
itself rooted in an acanthus.
The Virgin Mary and the beloved disciple, John, flank Christ on
either side and the area around them is filled with spiralling
vines that encompass various saints and animals, once again
indicating paradise. God’s people, who are nestled within the
acanthi spirals, are represented by twelve doves that adorn the
cross, which could indicate either the twelve apostles or the
entirety of the people of God, the Church.
A serpent lays dormant at the bottom of the acanthus bush,
beneath it and the cross, indicating Christ’s defeat of the devil
and depicting the latter using Genesis imagery, thus recalling
the Garden of Eden.
The combination of the cross and paradisal motifs in this mosa-
ic is strikingly apt for our assessment. Once again, it is Christ
who is the source of the vine, the true conqueror of evil, and the
only one who nourishes God’s people in the paradise of his
Church.
Moreover, thus, we have determined and can conclude with the
following: that the examples we have seen from the Byzantine
art of Italy depict our Lord Jesus Christ as the focal point - the
veritable axis mundi - of all things.
 Christ, Paradise, Trees, 155
and the Cross in the Byzantine Art of Italy

Picture 11: The mosaic in the apse of San Clemente (photo by author).

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