Golden Shadow – Byzantine Bees

Ombra Dorata – Api Bizantine is an exhibition set up at the Annafietta workshop, dedicated to bees and the environmental theme and looking back to the Byzantine era. In the basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe, the chasuble of the first bishop of Ravenna, Saint Apollinaris, is decorated with small gold tiles that recall the shape of bees. The bee, thanks to its honey, protects the voice and Saint Apollinaris, a fine orator, brought the pagans from the shadows of polytheism to the light and gold of Christianity through his voice. The bees on the Saint’s robe are 207, a number that in the Kabbalah has a double meaning: light and darkness.