It seems strange that if you want to see the most impressive examples of Byzantine mosaics anywhere they are not to be found in Turkey or in Greece, but in Ravenna, Italy. Nowadays a sleepy minor port town, 1500 years ago it was the capital of the Western Byzantine empire and was patronized by emperors and empresses (see post above). One reason they survive here and not elsewhere in the lands that we most associate with Byzantium is that the Byzantines themselves destroyed much of their own figural art (paintings, mosaics, statues) in the periods of iconoclasm in the 9th and 10th centuries. So pre-iconoclastic period Byzantine art is rare, but by the iconoclastic period Ravenna was no longer in the sphere of the capital, and thus its works survived. Mosaics are my favorite mural art form, and I’ve seen some of the best in my travels. Ravenna is still a very special place and I’ll post a few images today. This little detail is from the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia from the 5th century. It shows doves drinking from a bowl, a motif that is seem elsewhere in the building. It alludes to paradise and the clear waters of the rivers of paradise, from which one will be able to drink freely. So the idea of salvation fits with the structure’s funerary context and the hope for a life in heaven thereafter.