including headings Greek mosaic floors, Mosaic in the Roman empire, The Christian tradition, Ravenna, Capella Palatina in Palermo, ...
Venice's long link with Constantinople is evident in the mosaics, in the Byzantine style, for which the islands of the lagoon are famous. The earliest are on Torcello, the first centre of the Venetian state, where the ca...
Frescoes are more vulnerable than mosaic, and many more fresco cycles were painted in the Middle Ages than have survived. But the preferred medium for important church interiors continues to be mosaic in the Byzantine st...
Images in Egyptian paintings, Assyrian sculptures and Roman mosaics reveal that by the time of these civilizations there are many different shapes and sizes of dog. To use the word 'breed' may be anachronistic, though th...
Although the grandest style of medieval church decoration is mosaic, the classical tradition of painted murals (as at Pompeii or in the catacombs) continues to be used. A surviving example is the 10th-century church of S...
The earliest images of the Christian empire are the mosaics decorating the walls and domes of churches. But a different and ultimately more lasting tradition grows up in the monasteries of the eastern church. This is the...
The small palace chapel in Palermo, with its walls covered in bright pictorial mosaic, is one of the most exquisite buildings of the Middle Ages. Known as the Capella Palatina (Latin for 'palace chapel'), it is begun in...
In the interior of such a church, when funds are available, the dome is used for a rich display of mosaics. The favourite subject is Christ in Majesty (or in his Greek name Pantocrator, 'Ruler of All'), a vast figure see...
Another way of approaching Greek painting is through later copies. Many have been preserved by the volcanic ash at Pompeii, where one mosaic in particular is considered an accurate version of a large picture of the late...
The Dome of the Rock, completed in 691 and the earliest surviving example of Muslim architecture, borrows in spectacular fashion the themes of Byzantine mosaic and domed roof. This city of Jerusalem, taken from the Chris...
The emperor who comes to the throne in527 restores the western empire to much of its former glory, reforms the legal and administrative system of his realm, and commissions churches and mosaics which emphasize the imperi...
