Mosaic

====Venice====

In parts of [[Italy]], which were under eastern artistic influences, like [[Sicily]] and [[Venice]], mosaic making never went out of fashion in the Middle Ages. The whole interior of the [[St Mark's Basilica]] in Venice is clad with elaborate, golden mosaics. The oldest scenes were executed by Greek masters in the late 11th century but the majority of the mosaics are works of local artists from the 12th–13th centuries. The decoration of the church was finished only in the 16th century. One hundred and ten scenes of mosaics in the atrium of St Mark's were based directly on the miniatures of the [[Cotton Genesis]], a Byzantine manuscript that was brought to Venice after the sack of Constantinople (1204). The mosaics were executed in the 1220s.

Other important Venetian mosaics can be found in the [[Torcello Cathedral|Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta]] in [[Torcello]] from the 12th century, and in the Basilical of Santi Maria e Donato in [[Murano]] with a restored apse mosaic from the 12th century and a beautiful mosaic pavement (1140). The apse of the San Cipriano Church in Murano was decorated with an impressive golden mosaic from the early 13th century showing Christ enthroned with Mary, St John and the two patron saints, Cipriano and Cipriana. When the church was demolished in the 19th century, the mosaic was bought by [[Frederick William IV of Prussia]]. It was reassembled in the [[Church of Peace (Sanssouci)|Friedenskirche]] of [[Potsdam]] in the 1840s.

[[Trieste]] was also an important center of mosaic art. The mosaics in the apse of the [[Cathedral of San Giusto, Trieste|Cathedral of San Giusto]] were laid by master craftsmen from [[Veneto]] in the 12th–13th centuries.