Ravenna Mosaic 5

 
Ravenna Mosaic 5

Ravenna is a small city in north-eastern Italy. It was an important centre during the late Roman / early Byzantine period and has eight UNESCO World Heritage sites. These are mainly early Christian churches, which show the development and conflict of ideas through art.

This is part of the small but beautiful Mausoleum of Galla Placidia. It is the oldest and probably the best preserved of the mosaic buildings. Galla Placidia died in 450 CE. The upper surfaces are covered in mosaics on the themes of redemption and eternal life. Their style is Roman without significant influence from eastern design.

This is one of the less famous mosaics. The antelope are depicted very naturally against a background of stylised vegetation and a blue ground. The windows are made of thin sheets of alabaster rather than glass. [This picture is actually a manip. The window did not come out well in the lighting conditions so a window from a different wall has been inserted to illustrate the effect. No World Heritage monuments were damaged during this process!]

This picture has a lot of fine detail. So if possible please click the "download" button to see the image as I submitted it (1230 x 916 Pixels, 532Kb).

See also and

For more information about what is shown here see
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleu…

Panasonic DMC-LX7 camera without flash. Edited in Photoshop Elements.

Constructive criticism welcome.

(c) bobswin.deviantart.com - photo 2013, processing 2014.

This picture is not public domain, please do not use it elsewhere.