For the Byzantine spectator, an aspect of color to be appreciated above all else was its value of light.
It is no surprise that many sacramental object designed to exalt the spirit in a religious context functioned as glistening carriers of reflective light. Religious vestments, reliquaries, hangings and liturgical vessels often incorporate lustrous gold. The medium of mosaics can be an especially powerful conveyor of light.
The vast program of mosaics at Monreale covers over 6,300 square meters (68,000 square feet) of wall and ceiling decoration in a profusion of gold. It was designed as a controlled environment with very particular lighting conditions that are lost to modern viewers. Exterior light was strictly limited, but soft, artificial light from candles or lamps reflected off the surfaces of thousands and thousands of gold tesserae as a worshiper moved through the sacred space, experiencing the effects dynamically, eye and body in motion.
Each golden cube is a layered sandwich of glass with metal foil between and these tesserae are positioned to rest irregularly in the plaster bedding. Unlike floor mosaics, a wall or ceiling decoration has no functional need for surface uniformity. By purposely incorporating irregularity, blocks of color pick up reflections differently and appear to shimmer with light. Some of tesserae are embedded at raking angles specifically to cast light back down to where the spectators stand. It becomes a generator of light.
CHROMAPHILIA the story of color in art by Stella Paul
Learn more about the Cathedral in Sicily.
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