Mosaic/Mus(a)ic

Last night Allison and I went on a little mosaic tour before winding up at a concert. We started at SS. Cosma e Damiano, with a 6th century apse mosaic that was very influential on later mosaics. The church is in a converted Roman hall on the Forum, the first Christian church in the monumental heart of the city. From there, we went to S. Pudenziana, which contains the oldest public monumental display of Christian visual art in Rome--an apse mosaic from the late 4th/early 5th century. From there, we went to the church of Pudenziana's sister, S. Prassede, a 9th century church commissioned by Pope Paschal I with lots of mosaics on the arches in front of the apse, the apse, and the Zeno chapel, the only chapel in Rome entirely covered in mosaics. Here are two pictures from that chapel. The first is over the entrance, and the second is Peter (the white-haired one) and Paul (the dark-haired one) flanking an empty throne. The throne is the throne of light--i.e. Christ--and it was constructed so that light shining through an opposite window would fall directly onto the throne.




The concert was very enjoyable. The music was for organ (the church is currently trying to raise money for organ restoration), and on around half of the pieces he used the organ to accompany a mezzosoprano with a beatiful voice. On the bill were pieces by Pachelbel, Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, Saint-Saens, and Verdi, among others.

I haven't put up any pictures of the Christmas tree yet because I'm (AHEM!) waiting for someone ELSE to do it--oh yeah, and also because I haven't loaded the pictures onto the computer yet. Perhaps soon...