Material, colour, distance
One scene.
Three ways of looking.
Start with what the photograph preserves: the arrangement of figures, a gesture, a contrast of colours. Three stops in the first archive image of the Mary cycle in Brescia.
Choose a stop: the frame shows where to look. Use the slider to magnify up to 1.5×, drag, or use the arrow keys when the photograph has focus. Resolution remains that of the archive.
Explore the full cycle ↗
The scene. Figures extend across the width of the panel. In the centre, the seated figures and child form a lower group: notice how this change in height organises the scene.
The gesture. The standing figure to the left of centre extends an arm towards the right. This gesture crosses the space between the figures and brings the eye back towards the central group.
The colour. In the central group, the blue-violet mantle stands out against a predominantly warm background. The contrast is visible in the whole photograph, without reconstructing individual tesserae.
One original photograph, two scales of reading. Magnification does not reconstruct missing detail.
The work of the hand
From drawing
to material.
In the workshop photograph, the visual reference and the mosaic sit side by side. Moving from image to tesserae involves choices of colour, shape and direction.
Gino worked both on his own projects and from other artists’ designs. The archive therefore distinguishes mosaic execution from authorship of the design whenever the sources allow.
Meet the artist ↗