Three angels, disguised as men, sit at Abraham's table. Detail of Byzantine Hospitality of Abraham mosaic in the Basilica di San Vitale at Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The mosaic was created in the 500s AD, a few years after Ravenna was captured by the Byzantine Empire from the Ostrogoths.
Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy: The Hospitality of Abraham ... in this Byzantine mosaic detail of a scene from the biblical life of the Patriarch, three angels disguised as men, sent by God to announce that his wife Sarah would give birth to Isaac, sit at a table waiting to eat a roasted calf brought by Abraham on a platter. The complete mosaic fills a lunette in the sanctuary of the Basilica di San Vitale, founded in 547 AD, seven years after the Byzantine Empire captured Ravenna from the Ostrogoths. The city, on Italy’s northern Adriatic coast, was the capital of the Western Roman Empire from 402 to 476 AD. It then served as the Ostrogoth capital before the Byzantine Empire seized it in 540. In the 700s, it became the capital of the Lombard kings. It is now renowned as Western Europe’s leading centre for the study of Byzantine art and architecture and it is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Size: 4288px × 2848px
Location: Basilica di San Vitale, Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: 3, 500s, 6th, abraham, ad, ages, angels, architecture, art, basilica, bible, biblical, book, bread, byzantine, ce, century, christian, church, , di, disguise, disguised, eat, emilia-romagna, faces, food, genesis, god, guests, hebrew, heritage, history, hospitality, humans, interior, israelites, italian, italy, jewish, jews, kerr, loaves, meal, mediaeval, medieval, men, middle, mosaic, ravenna, religious, san, sanctuary, sat, seated, site, sitting, table, terence, testament, unesco, vitale, world
