Archiepiscopal Museum, Ravenna

In the museum relics of early Christian Ravenna are preserved, including fragments of mosaic from the first cathedral church, and the chapel of Sant'Andrea, dating from the Gothic kingdom.

On entering the room to the right, there is a little stele depicting Christ the Good Shepherd by a tree: it is the tombstone of Antiphon, who died aged 17 years, 5 months and 12 days, sometime at the end of the 2nd/beginning of the 3rd century, long before the Edict of Tolerance, and is thus the earliest Christian record in Ravenna.

It is the work of different hands and, even allowing for the missing panels, it still remains a visible masterpiece: the front bench, with the figures of Saint John the Baptist flanked by the Evangelists and a frieze work of peacocks, lions, goats and deer among vines, is especially fascinating; the backrest represents scenes from the birth of Christ, including Mary proving her virginity by immersion; on the other side, the miracles of Christ, his baptism and entry into Jerusalem; the armrests depict the Old Testament life of Joseph, reading from left to right (for the sitter).

A central feature is the little contemplation of the Word, encapsulated in the initials of Christ, and which reaffirms the Orthodox creed reigning, when the Arians had supremacy in Ravenna: The vault of the narthex, as you enter, is an exquisite working of blues and greens in which all the aquatic birdlife of Ravenna is interlaced; the lower parts have been restored cleverly with painted 'mosaic', including the inscription: Aut lux hic nata est, aut capta hic libera regnat ("Either light was born here or it was captured, [either way, here it] reigns freely") - which, apart from being a very fine appreciation of the art of mosaic, might be a cunning allusion to the 'Babylonian Captivity' of the Light, ('begotten not made') in the years of the Gothic occupation.

Above the door is a lunette decorated with a young warrior Christ - the proud Roman soldier and not the Man of Sorrows, shouldering his cross, displaying the book which says I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; the lion and the snake he treads under foot are taken as the forces of evil (here, Arianism) which he defeats.