DECORATIVE FABRICS
IN THE MOSAICS OF RAVENNA:

DECORATIVE FABRICS IN THE MOSAICS OF RAVENNA

• Why are there are so many fabrics in church mosaics?
• Why did ancient artists depict flowers on church veils?
• Why have veils vanished from church in 10 st?
• Who and why were erased from Ravenna mosaics? Why can we still see their hands?

You will find answers to these and many more questions in the book

Decorative Fabrics in the Mosaics of Ravenna
by Dr. Julia Matveyeva

This book is the first monograph on the world of fabrics in the early Byzantine church. It is based on the famous Ravenna mosaics of V‑VII century, declared to be classical and included in the UNESCO world heritage. Despite the wide popularity of the images themselves, the abundance of fabrics in them remained a mystery. Meanwhile, it is these mosaics that keep almost the only visual evidence of textile use in the ancient church. The research is unique in decoding the images of fabrics like a living language, due to their correlation with authentic Greek texts. The material obtained gradually reveals the historical, symbolic and theological meaning of the depicted textile objects. Understanding the role of what seemed to be "simple pieces of textile" suddenly opens for us a whole world of living, strong and ardent faith of the people of that time, fills the familiar classical mosaics with real stories and human destinies. The fabrics turn out to be the language of the precise and vivid messages of Christians, which reached us from ancient times. We are just to start reading it...