We got to the churches at opening time, 9:30, this morning. The first with these beautiful mosaics. Here is the birth f jesus with the requisite animals, angels, shepherds and Joseph looking a bit gloomy, it’s not about you, Joe. The ladies washing the baby in the bottom right are, Barbara tells me, to do with a legend about the baby curing a withered arm.The decoration is both luscious (all that gold) and simple at the same time. Simple clear images convey their message and are retain beauty. Done in around 1050, Byzantine.Here in a corner is St. Luke writing the bible, painting it too.The next church, just across the square was very different, huge, full of marble …Very prettily done …And a few vivid reliefs, this is Abraham being stopped from sacrificing Isaac by an angel arriving just in time, the ram looks worried …And Jonah about to be swallowed in a marble maw …But really just too much marble.Next we go back over a thousand years before the Byzantine, Greek-style oil jars from 500 BCE, a warrior rides a dolphin to the tune of a flute … just imagine.Absolutely fantastic stuff from excavations in south coast of Sicily. A warrior on an elegant chariot …
