The Walls

If we pass from space to the wall surfaces of Euphrasius’s basilica, here too we shall find, in the brilliance of the mosaics, supreme artistic values. We shall also find iconographic innovations used for the first time in the west. In Poreč, the Virgin occupies a central place in the apse, which had previously belonged only to Christ. She sits on a throne and on her knee she holds the baby Jesus, dressed in Roman ceremonial clothing, right hand raised for blessing. On each side of Mary there is an angel leading the throngs that have come to hail her. From Mary’s left side come three unnamed martyrs with wreaths in their hands and haloes above their heads. They too are dressed like angels in Roman ceremonial robes. On the other side behind the angels is Saint Maurus, shown in the same way as the previous three martyrs, but with his name written in with the halo. This saint and bishop of Poreč leads an exceptionally interesting group made up of three living people, three contemporaries: Bishop Euphrasius holding a model of his basilica in his hand, Archdeacon Claudius, Euphrasius’s brother, and a boy between them, whom we identify from the legend as the son of the Archdeacon, named, like his uncle, Euphrasius. Of course, it must have required a deal of audacity for the donor, together with two other contemporaries, close relatives at that, to step into the space meant for those much higher in the celestial hierarchy. However, Euphrasius quite clearly was not an ordinary mortal, a rebel who dared to set strict church standards at defiance. The angels and the holy martyrs from the train that surrounds the Madonna on the throne, in spite of their fine Roman clothing, have faces and gestures that are to some extent typical. As against them, the living characters that approach the heavenly throne without haloes are shown in an individual way, as if it were really a matter of portraits.