Archiepiscopal Chapel of St Andrew’s – The mosaic of Christ the Warrior
The Chapel of the Archiepiscopal Palace of Ravenna is a chapel located on the first floor of the Archiepiscopal Palace, included in the list of Italian UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The anti-Arian message is very evident in the mosaic work in the atrium, depicting Christ the Warrior, with the Cross on his shoulder, in the act of crushing the beasts of heresy, an act of ideological vindication against the then dominant political government of the Arian Theodoric. In the ribbed vault are images of the four archangels of the oldest biblical tradition - Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel - holding a clypeus with the Christological Monogram, surrounded by inhabited racemes (i.e. populated by animals, in this case small birds, symbolising the paradiasian context).