Carly Jane Steinborn is the Phyllis G. Gordan/Samuel H. Kress Foundation Pre-Doctoral Rome Prize Winner in Medieval Studies, and one of two Fellows lucky enough to live and work at the Academy for two years.
Carly’s project focuses primarily on the Orthodox Baptistery in Ravenna—the best preserved example in the group of contemporary baptisteries—in order to elucidate the meanings of its rich decoration and to examine how ecclesiastical patrons used images, expensive materials, and prominent inscriptions to convert new believers.
Carly’s time in Rome has been devoted to exploring the complex relationship between Ravenna and Rome in the fifth century and the interesting web of interaction and competition between the two cities. She is investigating these connections through the surviving visual evidence from the two cities. Since her arrival in September, Carly has enjoyed visits to many of Rome’s most spectacular early Christian churches and baptisteries—such as Santa Maria Maggiore, the Lateran, SS. Cosmas and Damian, Santo Stefano Rotondo, just to name a few.
When in Ravenna, Carly is focused on the impressive Baptistry there and how, in the early Middle Ages, when Ravenna was the capital of the Roman Empire, this building functioned as a monumental setting for the elaborate liturgical rite that marked an individual’s conversion to the Christian religion. Carly is investigating how the Baptistery’s sumptuous embellishment was carefully orchestrated to transform and shape the viewer’s experience of both the baptismal liturgy and the space in which this profound service took place.
The exterior and interior of the Orthodox Baptistery in Ravenna
Inside the Baptistery: a mosaic medallion depicting the baptism of Christ and a detail of the apostles Peter and Jude
As an initiation rite, baptism was understood symbolically as a performance of “rebirth” and “revitalization,” in which the neophyte was “renewed” at the moment of his or her capitulation to Christianity. Carly’s particular interest is in how the images, inscriptions, materials, and liturgy acted in dialogue with one another and together helped intensify this transformative moment. Carly’s belief is that these elements work in tandem to create an intricate and multilayered process, in which each individual gesture reflects, enhances, and comments upon each other. Thus the transition from one material to the next on the walls mimics the parallel “transition” that the fifth-century initiate would have undergone in the space. The visual crescendo created through the vertical placement of the marble, stucco, and mosaics stimulates a dynamic process—a metamorphoses—meant to elevate the beholder to a higher realm, while he or she was being immersed in the baptismal font below.
Eight months into a two-year long Fellowship, Carly shares these thoughts on living and working at the AAR:
“My Fellowship at the AAR has been an ideal experience. The multidisciplinary nature of the community has fostered such fruitful exchange, and I am grateful to every Fellow for sharing his or her knowledge and expertise with me. Many of us are working on similar issues related to materiality and the use of space, and it has been fascinating to see the ways in which certain themes overlap in our respective projects. Moreover, through the excellent events offered by the Academy, the AAR has promoted scholarly contact and exchange that is rare to find. I’ve greatly enjoyed all of the various lectures, walks, concerts, conferences, book presentations, exhibitions, film screenings, poetry readings, etc. With everything that’s going on here at the AAR, it is amazing that anyone has time to get work done! Most of all, however, I cherish the friendships that I’ve made while being here—especially with the other Fellows and their families. This group has created such a supportive and warm environment. And this convivial atmosphere is always perceptible—if we are all together at an official AAR event or holding a spontaneous social gathering with karaoke or trivia questions. Whether I’m enjoying the view of the cortile from my office or having a conversation with a friend in the AAR Bar, I’ve taken such pleasure in living and working at our ‘little’ home up on the Janiculum.”