Thursday, April 29, 2010

Byzantine Mosaics, Ravenna Basilica, Italy

"Love is the beauty of the soul."
Saint Augustine

My cousin Sylvia and her hubby Tom last week went on a camping trip to northern Italy from their home in Vienna, Austria. They spent time at Lake Garda, and also visited Ravenna, which is known for its superb Byzantine mosaics dating from the mid-6th century and said to probably be the finest Byzantine mosaics in the western world.

As Syl always does, she promised me angel photos from her trip. Here are two of her photos with her description:

“This is from the Basilica in Ravenna. Dates back to 525A.D. It is a mosaic in a 2 octagon with 8 rectangles sort of chapels off the center. All is glitter with a play of light and dark void and solid forms. It is down some stairs almost in the basement so it is dark walking down then when you get there you see light in shapes and colors with filtered light through the windows and in and out of the octagon shapes. Very lovely experience. Ravenna was once the capital of the Roman Empire and in the 6th century it was dominated by Byzantine culture.”










It’s nice she often has the chance to explore Italy as our grandparents were born in Sicily and came to America in the later part of the 19th century...so Syl is able to explore some of our family heritage and culture.

Thanks, Syl...

~Linda

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