A World in Pieces: Medieval Wall Mosaics

Fascinating online lecture form the London Art History Society discussing medieval wall mosaics.

Liz James from the University of Sussex took us though the practicalities of producing wall mosaics in the Medieval period using the works in the apse of the Church of Panagia in Kiti in Cyprus as a starting point.

She briefly took us though the image but the talk mainly asked questions about how they got there and tried to answer them with observation and logical thinking. How do you design a building which is going to take the weight of a mosaic? How do you get the tesserae to the building site? Do they arrived coloured or does the artist have to do that?

She acknowledged she might not have the answers but presented a starting point for thinking about the topic. It was a refreshing and exciting approach to art history.

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