The Mosaic of the Great Palace of Constantinople. Meaning, Technique, and Conservation

Abstract

Bilingual edition: Romanian–English

A dialogue takes place between the restorer and the object of intervention, creating a continuous flow in which ideas and reflections take shape through constant observation. This book is grounded in such considerations.

The content is structured around successive stages in the development of new theories on mosaics and is divided into three main parts.

The first part explains technical data and is addressed to a moderately informed readership; specialists may choose to skip it.

The second part presents the scientific material, based largely on the mosaics of the Imperial Palace of Constantinople. Since it requires a deeper understanding of mosaic production techniques and a more complex treatment of the general framework, this section is more demanding to read than the previous one.

The final section contains observations on specific topics, such as dating hypotheses, general art-historical chronologies, and commentary on the description of mosaics. These subjects are directly addressed to specialists in archaeology, art history, and conservation and are therefore written in a manner specific to each field.