Encounter: Reflections on the Wall Mosaics in the Eufrasiana

Abstract

t was a gray prairie morning in late autumn 1996 when, sitting in my office engaged in the preparation of that morning’s lecture, I received a phone call from Ann Terry asking if I would join her in investigating the wall and vault mosaics of the basilica of Eufrasius at Poreč, in Istria (now Croatia) (Fig. 1). The prospect was exciting, but also daunting. Not only did the mosaics cover a very extensive area but, in addition, they posed grave difficulties. Beautiful though they were, the mosaics were under a cloud, already known to be in bad condition at the end of the nineteenth century, when the sixth-century work was extensively restored. The state of the fabric before the restorations had been graphically described in 1886 by the conservator Giovanni Righetti: