Fall 2019: Konnor Ross

The main purpose of this scholarship was to give me the opportunity to travel to Ravenna to see early Christian basilicas, buildings, and mosaics. Ravenna is an incredible cultural site with eight UNESCO world heritage sites, all of which I was able to visit. I decided to travel to Ravenna after studying some of the structures and mosaics in class with Dr. Vander Poppen. Architecturally, the buildings are amazing. It was incredible to see some of the earliest octagonal structures and incredible basilicas. During my time in Ravenna, the things that kept calling to me were the mosaics. When studying the structures and mosaics, I thought critically about the history of these spaces and wrote down what I was thinking or questions that I had to guide possible future research. Something that interested me a lot when studying the mosaics were the early representations of Christ and God. For example, the hand of God in San Vitale because during this period he was seen as too divine to represent as a human. It was interesting to see the change of symbols relating to Christianity—for example the change from images of Christ as a symbol, like the good shepherd in Galla Placidia, to images of him as a person, like Christ Pantocrator in San Vitale or the images of Christ being baptized in the baptistries. I think Ravenna is a place where you can see the change and growth of Christianity because they no longer had to hide from pagan persecution and, to me, that is something really spectacular. During my exploration of the art in Ravenna, I also found myself asking a lot of questions about images of women. It was interesting to see images of women in the mosaics of Sant’Apollinare in Nuovo, who are not representing specific women, and in the Archbishop Chapel, which represent specific, named women. I thought that during this time period, women were rarely represented in art aside from the Virgin Mary. This time in Ravenna gave the opportunity to have these questions that I am definitely interested in researching further. All in all, Ravenna was an amazing experience where I found myself fulfilling my desire to see the things I learned about in class while also discovering new questions and interests from the same monuments and artwork.  

Ravenna has become one of my favorite cities in the world. I am so lucky to have experienced the wonderful city and all of the incredible art and architecture that comes with it. The fact that I was able to travel to Ravenna on my own and discover things by myself was an experience I will always cherish. This trip helped me to reflect academically and personally; I was able to study something I know interests me and think about future research as well as learn a lot about myself. 

Earlier I mentioned how Ravenna was the main purpose of this scholarship. This is because I am studying abroad in Rome where I will use the rest of this grant to see more early-Christian and medieval basilicas and churches, as well as the Catacombs of Priscilla and other exhibitions or monuments. I am excited to see some of these important early Christian monuments throughout my last month here in Rome.