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One of the earliest of Ravenna’s extant monuments is the mausoleum of Galla Placidia, built in the 5th century ad by Galla Placidia, the sister of the emperor Honorius. Its building technique is Western, but its Latin cross layout, with barrel vaults and a central dome, has Eastern prototypes. The entire upper surface of the mausoleum’s interior is covered with mosaics on a blue ground.
...in Sta. Costanza in Rome. Later, when this use of gold for imitation purposes had become more refined, some spectacular effects were produced in the depiction of garments. The Good Shepherd in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia at Ravenna (c. ad 450) is dressed in golden robes of densely set gold cubes shaded with stripes of light-yellow tesserae. The female saints in S. Apollinare Nuovo...
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