Caligula Collage

Original mosaic in Byzantine stile inspired by the marble statues of Emperor Caligula. It particular, the mosaic represents a young Caligula, as visible in a marble bust at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts, New York. The mosaic is made in the style of byzantine mosaics in Ravenna, Italy. The laurel is a symbol of triumph and traces back to Greek mythology. The Imperial symbols are visible in the gold leaf background and a round circle in porphyry colors, as per the Justinian portraits in Ravenna dated around 550 AD. The mosaic is made of glass tesserae from the historical furnace Orsoni, in Venice, Italy, active since 1888, and includes a significant percentage of gold leaf tesserae. The technique is the so called, direct on final support, meaning that the application of tesserae is made directly on concrete, as per the original ancient artworks. The support is aerolam, i.e. aluminum, commonly used in restoration of ancient mosaics to avoid the long-term distortions of wood and the excessive weight of other materials. The final weight of the artwork is anyhow about 2 kilos, because of glass and concrete. Very small tesserae are posed with the use of glue and the color of tesserae is sometimes nuanced by the use of acrylic tempera.