Deer Collage

Copy at original size of a Roman mosaic in Ravenna, Italy, in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The original mosaic dates between 425 and 450 AD. The deer is one of the four visible in the lateral chapels and refers to Psalm 42: “As the deer pants for water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God”. As Sante Ghigi states (GHIGI 1910, Il Mausoleo di Galla, p. 91), the deer represent the souls in love with Christ who, amidst the temptations and dangers of life, run to cool themselves at the source. The copy 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 temporary support, meaning that the application of tesserae is made directly on concrete, as per the original artwork, but on a temporary support, where a drawing of the original mosaics is attached to guide the pose. Only at the end of the pose, the temporary support is removed, and the mosaics is posed on the final support by means of an additional layer of concrete. The final 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 15 kilos, because of glass and concrete