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Narmer's Palette Compared with the Mosaic of Emperor Justinian

Continued from: Pharaoh Narmer's Palette

As a result of Eastern Roman emperor Justinian's conquering the West, "the richest array of monuments of the First Golden Age (526 - 726 AD)"²¹ was preserved not in Constantinople but in Ravenna, originally a naval station on the Adriatic, and a capital of the West Roman emperors from 402 AD.

The most important church of that time was San Vitale, built in 526 - 547 AD. Janson characterizes its style as the one deriving mainly from Constantinople²². Justinian put this image inside a very impressive church. Compared to Sta. Costanza, for example, San Vitale is both large in scale and "richer in spatial effect"²³.

The central mosaic is in the apse of San Vitale. It shows Christ seated on a globe surrounded by two angels and is passing a golden crown to Saint Vitalis.

On the two side walls of the apse are mosaics of Justinian and his empress Theodora, accompanied by their retinue and the local clergy, attending the church service "as if this were a palace chapel"²⁴. Emperor Justinian shows his dominance differently from pharaoh Narmer. His figure is also central in the mosaic, but in a different way. His figure is more realistic than the one of the pharaoh. Justinian is the same height as his attendants. He wears the same royal purple as Christ in the apse.

There is a certain spiritual air in this composition. Justinian is portrayed surrounded by his attendants as Jesus had been traditionally portrayed surrounded by his disciples. The gold background of the mosaic eliminates the reality, as if transporting the viewer into a spiritual world²⁵.

On Justinian's left the archbishop Maximian²⁶ (identified by an inscription) wears a gold cloak and holds a jeweled cross. Two more members of the clergy are standing to his left. The archbishop's superiority to the two other members of clergy on his left is obvious from the position of his feet. He, in fact, is the closest figure to us, which shows the dominant position of the priestly class in the Byzantine society at that time. Justinian's, however, balances out his slightly modest place. The halo around his head makes him noticeably taller than anybody else in the mosaic, restoring the most dominant position to the emperor.

On Justinian's right, we can see Justinian's general, Belisarius²⁷. A native of Thrace, just as the emperor²⁸, he brought Justinian great victory both in North Africa and in Italy²⁹. During his lifetime, Belisarius had been the right hand of the emperor, just as he is portrayed in the mosaic³⁰.

In the left corner of the mosaic (the emperor's right), is Justinian's military guard³¹ with their large green shield decorated with the first letters of the name of Christ in Greek: Chi-Rho. This gives us a definite parallel with the first Christian emperor, Constantine I³².

By having this sign on the shield of his imperial guards, Justinian not only communicates his link with the great, victorious, and supposedly pious emperor of the past, but also shows himself as a "a worthy successor"³³. The mosaic served as a visual reminder of the power of the emperor in a place far from his capital and of his "religious devotion to Christ"³⁴.

The shapes of the imperial attendants are so strangely slim and even flat, that it is hard to believe into existence of human bodies under their robes. Janson insists that despite their stylized forms, eyes, brows and noses of the same shape, Justinian, Theodora and their retinue were intended to individual likenesses³⁵. Their ascetic shapes may also be a reflection of the ideal of an austere life led by Justinian and his expectation to do the same of his subordinates³⁶.

We know who the Justinian's attendants are, but not so with Narmer. This is not caused only by the present lack of information about the court of the pharaoh. Even if one got to travel in time and got to know his officials personally, he would not be able to point them on the palette. People surrounding the pharaoh were not meant to be recognizable.

Both Narmer and Justinian are seeking to be god-like. Where Narmer surrounds himself with the Egyptian gods and mixes himself with them, Justinian associates himself with the Son of the Christian God, Jesus Christ. By doing this, Justinian is in fact connecting himself with a force that is much stronger in the minds of his people than the gods of Egypt were in the minds of the ancient Egyptians³⁷.

There are twelve attendants surrounding Justinian, just as there were twelve apostles of Jesus before the betrayal. I spent a considerable amount of time wondering what he meant by having this number of the apostles. Did he try to associate himself with Jesus as a leader before his betrayal? Or with the church going on after the apostles found a replacement for Judas who had committed suicide later³⁸. The answer turned out to be quite simple: the twelfth companion was added later³⁹. Justinian was not meant to see the mosaic and he never did. It was meant to impress the people of the far-away Italy⁴⁰.

Opposite of the Justinian's mosaic, we can see empress Theodora and her retinue. (Fig. 5). She wears the same royal purple as her husband, which shows her to be an obvious match for her imperial husband. Her head is framed by a halo. She offers a golden cup. She is repeating the gesture of the three Magi on her robe offering gifts to Mary and little Jesus⁴¹. Adams comments that since Theodora herself is placed farther back in the picture space than Justinian, her image is less imposing⁴².

In our time there have been many books written about Justinian, while it is almost impossible not able to find one specifically on Narmer⁴³. Sadly, we do not have enough information about the pharaoh. We have detailed accounts about Justinian's reign. His life, especially his relationship with his wife, has always aroused public interest. Writing at the time of Predynastic Egypt, however, had for its purpose recording the figures, numbers, and facts, not people's private life, not even the one of the pharaoh. As a result, the information we have about the first pharaoh is very limited. Even though most of the information we have about Justinian comes from only one book, The Secret History by Procopius. We have at least one notable historian, even though a biased one⁴⁴, who was interested in the life of the imperial couple. The little information we have about Narmer comes mostly from assumptions and theorizing. We do not even know what his name should have really sounded like. It almost feels as a pity that no elaborate details and even gossip about the reign of Narmer made it to our time.