Late Antique and medieval mosaics in Italy

In contrast, the floors of Early Christian churches contained very little figurative art, no doubt largely because it was considered inappropriate to walk on sacred images.

[9] These mosaics decorate both the walls and ceilings of the church, depicting biblical scenes, mostly from the Old Testament, and surrounded by a flowing river, were destroyed in 1620 and only survive in some sketches.

The vaulted ceiling of the ambulatory retains its mosaics of 324-6 of various decorative designs with small birds, figures, pastoral scenes and putti in compartments in a geometric framework in some sections, and in arrangements of foliage in others.

Despite the efforts of art historians to extract Christian symbolism from these components, the assembly is essentially derived from pagan decorative schemes for grand buildings.

The apse mosaic is now mostly Coronation of the Virgin of 1295 by Jacopo Torriti; it was probably originally composed of the giant foliage scrolls that remain to the upper sides.

[14] The triumphal arch has the earliest surviving monumental cycle of the Life of the Virgin, dedicatee of the church, and is thought to have been put up by Pope Sixtus III (432–40) to celebrate the Council of Ephesus, where Marian doctrine triumphed over the Nestorians.

It remained a capital until the 8th century, first of the Ostrogothic Kingdom from 493 and then after 540 the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna, before returning to the small-town status that has preserved its church buildings so well, though the palaces of the rulers and court have all been lost.

These are: Milan was the main military centre of Northern Italy, controlling the roads to the north, and the effective capital of Constantius II, Constantine's son.

It has an apse mosaic of a Traditio Legis with a beardless Christ in white robes flanked by the apostles, as part of a much larger scheme, now remaining only in fragments.

Just outside modern Italy, but within the older borders, is the Euphrasian Basilica at Poreč (Parenzo), Istria with extensive mosaics of about 530 on the apse and triumphal arch.

[18] Four churches in Rome have mosaics of saints near where their relics were held; these all show an abandonment of classical illusionism for large-eyed figures floating in space.

[22] Five churches in Rome have mosaics from this period:Santi Nereo e Achilleo (c. 814) has an iconographically eccentric programme at the east end, while Santa Prassede and Santa Cecilia in Trastevere (both c.820) and San Marco (commissioned between 828 and 848) all have semi-domes following that of Santi Cosma e Damiano (526-30 - above) with Saints Peter and Paul presenting martyrs and the donor Pope carrying a model of the church.

The Palazzo Reale and the castle at Zisa, Palermo have the only significant panels of secular mosaics to survive from the period, probably both of around 1170, both of which show considerable Islamic influence, though that may reflect the Byzantine style for such work.

[27] The Church of Santa Maria e San Donato on the nearby island of Murano has a similar, but 13th century, Virgin apse mosaic, as well as an opus sectile floor from 1140.

St Mark's is the largest of the remaining handful of buildings, in Ravenna, Sicily, Turkey and Greece, which retain the unique impact of a full mosaic interior.

Otto Demus believes that the early mosaics were created by local workshops aware of recent Byzantine work, and perhaps including, or trained by, Greeks.