Milan Mosaic

As anyone who frequents my blog knows, my favorite medium is mosaic, and there isn’t anywhere I won’t go to find some great ones. This is a detail of a semi-dome in the church of San Lorenzo Maggiore in Milan. In the mosaic Christ is flanked by his apostles, four of whom are shown here looking up to their divine boss with appropriate admiration. The 5th century CE artist has used orange tesserae (that’s what the bits of a mosaic are called; sing. tessera) to indicate light shining from heaven. A brilliant technique.