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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55207#0024
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- Frühchristliche und byzantinische Kunst
i6 THE IMPERIAL PORTRAITS OF THE SOUTH GALLERY
top and, below, a square beryl set at an angle, with carnelians cut flame-like
at its sides, all among scattered pearls, and the whole bordered in violet tissue
enriched, like the shoulder-piece, with beryls in claw-setting and pearls.
The work of the mosaic painter, in producing this panel, reveals the skill
he shared in common with many craftsmen in the arts of the time. Master
enamellers, goldsmiths, and lapidaries contribute their skill in costly book
covers, in reliquaries with inscriptions, in pearl-bound chalices, and in trans-
lucent crystal ewers, to attain the sum of the splendour that casts its spell
from these imperial figures.
By a happy fortuity, the setting-bed of the dilapidated section of the figure
of Zoe has survived, retaining for the most part its colour, and allowing us to
discern and reconstruct [see Pl. XVII] the original fresco, painted in situ by
the mosaicist, as guide to the setting of his cubes [25]. The painted plaster,
thus recovered, shows the silk divitission, with its designs in gold metal
threads, as well as the shield-shaped lower part of the loros, of gold tissue in
the form of an elongated oval, adorned with a large cross, surrounded by
pearls and a variety of stones cut round and square [26].
The imprint of every tessella is defined in the revealed fresco, giving the
illusion of remnants of cubes still remaining in the plaster.
Four colours are used: a black indigo blue, a yellow ochre, a dull earth-green,
and a purple earth-red. As fast as the setting-bed was laid, the figure was
extended in blue-black for outlines and deeper folds of the divitission and
in a lighter tone of the same colour for the face of the tissue. The fine gold
design in the silk of the mosaic is not indicated in the fresco. Yellow ochre
prepares for the gold ground of the lower part of the loros, and the cross,
drawn in black-blue over yellow, produces a reddish-brown. Positions for
red jewels are taken in earth-red and for green stones in earth-green, both
colours being influenced by the underpainting. Pearls are announced in a thin
wash of blue-black over yellow as a pearly grey. The background to receive
the gold cubes is determined in purple earth-red. Occasionally the mosaic
does not follow the colour direction of the fresco; for example, a green cube
is set on red paint—as if the wind of creation changed and turned the sail
another way.
There is indeed ample compensation in the loss of the mosaics here for this
area of exposed setting-bed reveals the technique of the artist and his means
of attaining a sound knowledge of an object and of giving form and strength
to his thought and inspiration.
Above the head of the empress are three lines of inscriptions made in black-
violet glass tessellae; they read:
top and, below, a square beryl set at an angle, with carnelians cut flame-like
at its sides, all among scattered pearls, and the whole bordered in violet tissue
enriched, like the shoulder-piece, with beryls in claw-setting and pearls.
The work of the mosaic painter, in producing this panel, reveals the skill
he shared in common with many craftsmen in the arts of the time. Master
enamellers, goldsmiths, and lapidaries contribute their skill in costly book
covers, in reliquaries with inscriptions, in pearl-bound chalices, and in trans-
lucent crystal ewers, to attain the sum of the splendour that casts its spell
from these imperial figures.
By a happy fortuity, the setting-bed of the dilapidated section of the figure
of Zoe has survived, retaining for the most part its colour, and allowing us to
discern and reconstruct [see Pl. XVII] the original fresco, painted in situ by
the mosaicist, as guide to the setting of his cubes [25]. The painted plaster,
thus recovered, shows the silk divitission, with its designs in gold metal
threads, as well as the shield-shaped lower part of the loros, of gold tissue in
the form of an elongated oval, adorned with a large cross, surrounded by
pearls and a variety of stones cut round and square [26].
The imprint of every tessella is defined in the revealed fresco, giving the
illusion of remnants of cubes still remaining in the plaster.
Four colours are used: a black indigo blue, a yellow ochre, a dull earth-green,
and a purple earth-red. As fast as the setting-bed was laid, the figure was
extended in blue-black for outlines and deeper folds of the divitission and
in a lighter tone of the same colour for the face of the tissue. The fine gold
design in the silk of the mosaic is not indicated in the fresco. Yellow ochre
prepares for the gold ground of the lower part of the loros, and the cross,
drawn in black-blue over yellow, produces a reddish-brown. Positions for
red jewels are taken in earth-red and for green stones in earth-green, both
colours being influenced by the underpainting. Pearls are announced in a thin
wash of blue-black over yellow as a pearly grey. The background to receive
the gold cubes is determined in purple earth-red. Occasionally the mosaic
does not follow the colour direction of the fresco; for example, a green cube
is set on red paint—as if the wind of creation changed and turned the sail
another way.
There is indeed ample compensation in the loss of the mosaics here for this
area of exposed setting-bed reveals the technique of the artist and his means
of attaining a sound knowledge of an object and of giving form and strength
to his thought and inspiration.
Above the head of the empress are three lines of inscriptions made in black-
violet glass tessellae; they read: