L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 2023 www.italoamericano.org 10 L'Italo-Americano I don't know how com- m o n i t i s i n U S schools, but here in Italy, at least when I w a s a c h i l d i n t h e 1980s, it was quite common t o c r e a t e c o l o r f u l paper mosaics during art class: you'd buy these col- ored, shiny paper sheets, which you'd cut into tiny squares and glue onto draw- ings to color them. Admitted- ly, it was a messy job, with most children getting dirty, sticky fingers from the glue, and the paper mosaic pieces being of a variety of irregular shapes, rather than perfect squares. Those early attempts at mosaic art weren't only cre- ative endeavors, but also a way to make us learn more about the traditional craft of mosaic artists past and pre- sent in our country. And the Italian name we associate the most with it is, without a doubt, Ravenna. Once the capital of the Roman Empire, Ravenna was the heart of the Byzantine world in Italy and, in later centuries, it conquered the heart of Dante Alighieri, Lord Byron, Giacomo Leopardi, and Gustav Klimt, among o t h e r s . I n e a r l i e r d a y s , Ravenna had been the home of the greatest Empress of t h e R o m a n W o r l d , G a l l a Placidia, whose mausoleum is, in fact, one of the places in town with the most beautiful mosaics. Historians date the first m o s a i c s t o 3 , 0 0 0 y e a r s before the birth of Christ and t h e S u m e r i a n c i v i l i z a - tion when they were used to decorate homes with colorful g e o m e t r i c a l p a t t e r n s . The Greeks also loved the style but, at last until the 1st century BC, they'd used cob- bles rather than more regu- larly-cut stones. Here, we began seeing more complex representations, including m y t h o l o g i c a l f i g u r e s a n d e v e r y d a y l i f e s c e n e s . The Romans were keen on mosaics, too, and used the technique widely in their h o m e s , a s w e l e a r n e d through many archaeological wonders including those in t h e V i l l a d e l C a s a l e , the Taberna Medica in Rimi- n i , t h e C a s a d e l l ' O r s o i n P o m p e i i a n d , i n d e e d , the Domus dei Tappeti di Pietra in Ravenna. With Christianity, the pop- ularity of mosaic art devel- o p e d f u r t h e r , b u t i t w a s the Byzantines who truly b r o u g h t i t t o i t s c l i m a x , between the early 4th and early 6th century AD: it is in t h i s p e r i o d t h a t R a v e n n a became the Mediterranean capital of mosaic art, a time that corresponded to its stint a s c a p i t a l o f t h e R o m a n Empire - or what remained of it. Key to the development of the art was the wish to richly decorate the walls and ceil- ings of religious buildings u s i n g a w e a l t h o f s t o n e s , enamels, and gold. In the M i d d l e A g e s , m o s a i c s became a tool to represent events of the Bible, while modern and contemporary art rediscovered them as a c r e a t i v e m e a n s t h a t c a n merge textures and colors perfectly to represent the dream-like world of surreal- ists like Gaudì, Klimt, and Mirò. Making a mosaic isn't as s i m p l e a s i t m a y s e e m , because the artist must have an eye not only for the specif- ic nuances of each piece but also for their shape and size: it is a job that only human hands can do, the old-fash- ioned way, with scalpels and small mallets, using jewel- like geometrical fragments mostly coming from poly- chromous stones and mar- bles, enamels and gold. Usu- ally, they are directly applied to a previously created draw- ing to fill it with colors and light. Ravenna is considered the c a p i t a l o f I t a l i a n m o s a i c b e c a u s e o f t h e w e a l t h o f artistic examples of the tech- nique it holds within: we already mentioned the Galla Placidia's Mausoleum, but perhaps the most famous of all mosaici ravennati are those in the Basilica of Sant' Apollinare Nuovo, the Mau- soleum of Theodoric and the Basilica of San Vitale. Impressive is also the col- lection of modern and con- temporary mosaics at Raven- na's Museo d'Arte (MAR). To be truthful, we should add the beautiful Romagna city does share the title of capital of mosaic art with Sicily, in particular with Monreale and Palermo, home to some of the most beautiful and rich examples of the art in the world: those in the Duomo di Monreale, especially the majestic Pantocrator, and t h o s e i n t h e C a p p e l l a Palatina in Palermo. Today, the art of mosaic s t i l l t h r i v e s i n I t a l y , a l s o thanks to important schools, like the one in Spilimbergo, Friuli Venezia-Giulia, which has been training mosaic artists since 1922. Ravenna is known for its Scuola del Restauro del Mosaico, where young artists can learn how to restore and safeguard precious examples of mosaic art from the past. The Liceo Artistico P.L. Nervi — G. Severini and the Accademia di Belle Arti di Ravenna are a m o n g t h e o n l y p u b l i c s c h o o l s i n I t a l y o f f e r i n g mosaic courses at the second and third level respectively. There are also several recog- nized private courses to learn t h e a r t , i n c l u d i n g M a r c o S a n t i ' s G r u p p o Mosaicisti, the Koko Mosaico R a v e n n a , L u c i a n a N o t - t u r n i ' s M o s a i c A r t School, and Pixel Mosaic. All these are organized and held by mosaic artists and restor- ers in their ateliers. Ravenna has also a dedi- c a t e d r e s e a r c h c e n t e r , the International Center for the Documentation of Mosaic, a section of MAR created in 2003, which focus- e s o n t h e p r o m o t i o n o f research and studies on the art of mosaic, as well as its valorization as part of Raven- na and Italy's heritage, and a contemporary form of artistic expression. Ravenna, the capital of Italian mosaic GIULIA FRANCESCHINI The Apostle Thaddeus, in a mosaic at San Vitale Basilica (Photo: Neil Harrison/Dreamstime) LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE

• Cover