Home > Brussels, 8th September 2010 Exhibition: "The ancient mosaics of Ravenna"
Brussels, 8th September 2010 Exhibition: "The ancient mosaics of Ravenna"
Ravenna is an ancient city on the northern coast of the Adriatic Sea that one thousand and five hundred years ago was the capital of the Roman Empire, the capital of Theodoric the first king of the Goths, and capital of the Byzantine Empire in Europe.
The magnificence of this period has left Ravenna with a great heritage of religious buildings decorated with mosaics; Ravenna keeps the richest heritage of ancient mosaics of the fifth and sixth centuries, greater for artistic quality and iconological importance than that of all the cities of ancient and classical world, both East and West.
For these reasons, in 1997 the UNESCO declared World Heritage Site the seven sacred buildings of Ravenna which jealously retain their internal mosaics presented in this exhibition.
The art of mosaics was not born in Ravenna, but in Ravenna has found its highest expression. In the mosaics of Ravenna was born Christian iconology, a collection of realism and symbolism, Roman and Byzantine influences, a starting point in art history.
This collection of mosaics from the ancient faithful copy has been produced in the early ´50s to promote worldwide awareness of Ravenna and its priceless mosaics. The mosaics are faithful copies of the originals still preserved in the monuments of Ravenna.
The execution of these copies was edited by the Mosaic Group of the Academy of Fine Arts, faithful guardians of this ancient craft. The entire collection was created following a complex and rigorous methodology to ensure the absolute fidelity to the originals.
Each piece was run on a transparent gloss applied to the original mosaic, drawing precise and complete contours of all cards. Then it went to the sampling of all colours, in their different shades, to sort from the glass factories of Murano and Venice the glass paste necessary to form the pieces through a patient manual cutting. The mosaic was then performed with the so-called indirect method on a provisional basis, or a bed of mortar on which was printed on glossy, to be finally pulled, cleaned and put back into permanent accommodation.
The mosaics of this exhibition are copies taken from the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, the Basilica of San Vitale and St. Apollinaris Nuovo, the Baptistery and the Chapel of the Archbishop of Neon.
This exhibition offers the opportunity to admire the details closely, with a vision that in the originals would not be possible with naked eye.
The Municipality of Ravenna is the owner of 60 of these prints: a selection of them, or in some cases the entire collection was exhibited in the last 50 years in Europe and worldwide. The first exhibition took place in 1951 in Paris.
INFO
Exhibition open to visitors only 8th September at 6 p.m. at the headquarters of the European Commission-Berlaymont
Rue de la Loi 200 - 1040 Brussels after reservation at:
bruxellesconference@regione.emilia-romagna.it
tel. 0032 (0) 2 732.30.90
Organized by: Italian Cultural Institute in Brussels, European Commission, Municipality of Ravenna and Emilia-Romagna Region
