IVAN FOLETTI Physiognomic representations as a rhetorical instrument: “portraits” in San Vittore in Ciel d’Oro, the Galla Placidia “mausoleum” and San Paolo Fuori le Mura The following pages are intended as a reflection – based on one particular case – on the role and place of the mimetic portrait in the fifth century, and on the notion of “original” versus “copy”. Given the theme of this conference, I will obviously concentrate on portraits with a mnemonic function. Inevitably, howe- ver, the debate will also touch on the question of the portrait in general. Through the examples studied here, I will also try to respond to a question which, to me, seems to be one of the central questions surrounding the portrait in late antiquity: to what extent are the formal choices determined by rhetorical considerations? And more generally, what is the impact of oratory on figurative style? 1 The starting point of this study is the true “portrait gallery in mosaic” conser- ved in the sacellum of St. Victor in Ciel d’Oro in Milan, in the immediate vicinity of the Basilica of St. Ambrose. 2 But before going into this topic, two general premises are necessary. We must, before all else, specify what we mean by the term “portrait”. I will use the definition given by Jean Wirth, according to which a portrait is an image which, using various means, refers the viewer directly to the person represented. 3 An image is therefore a “portrait” solely by virtue of its 1. For the question of the relationship between art and rhetoric in the antiquity cf. Tonio Hölscher, The language of images in Roman art, Cambridge; New York 2004 [1987], for the re- lationship between eloquence and images in the byzantine culture cf. Henry Maguire, Art and eloquence in Byzantium, Princeton 1981. 2. For the decorations of the sacellum of San Vittore cf. the recent bibliography: Svetlana P. Zaigrajkina, “Mozaiki kapelly San Vittore in Č’el d’Oro v Milane: osobennosti ikonografičeskoj programmy”, in Obraz Vizantii: sbornik statej v čest’ O. S. Popovoj, Moskva 2008, pp. 163182; Gillian Mackie, Early christian chapels in the west: Decoration, Function and Patronage, Toronto- BuffaloLondon 2003, pp. 116129; Gillian Mackie, “Symbolism and purpose in an early christian martyr chapel: the case of San Vittore in Ciel d’Oro, Milan”, Gesta, XXXIV/2 (1995), pp. 91101; Jan Kosinka, “La cappella di San Vittore in Ciel d’Oro a Milano nella basilica di Sant’Ambrogio”, in Il restauro dei mosaici, in Mosaici a S. Vitale e altri restauri: atti del convegno nazionale sul restauro in situ di mosaici parietali, Ravenna 1-3 ottobre 1990, Annamaria M. Iannucci, Cesare Fiori et al. edd., Ravenna 1992, pp. 157159 and Carlo Bertelli, “Percorso tra le testimonianze figurative più an- tiche: dai mosaici di S. Vittore in ciel d’oro al pulpito della basilica”, in La basilica di S. Ambrogio: il tempio ininterrotto, Maria Luisa Gatti Perer ed., Milano 1995, pp. 339387, sp. pp. 342347. 3. Jean Wirth, “Introduction”, in Le portrait et la représentation de l’individu, Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, JeanMichel Spieser et Jean Wirth edd., Tavarnuzze 2007, pp. 915.