Galla Placidia's star with a golden frame

Handmade by Koko Mosaico, direct technique on cement mortar.

Wooden frame is painted with acrylics, cement mortar, gold and smalti tesserae cut by hand with the use of the ancient mosaic tools, hammer and hardie.

Gold and smalti tesserae from Orsoni, the historical Venetian furnace that uses the same techniques since 1888 to produce 24K gold leaf mosaics, colored gold and Venetian smalti.

This mosaic work draws inspiration from the starry vault of the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, one of the absolute masterpieces of late antique mosaic art.
The golden star that composes it evokes a cosmic and symbolic vision of space, in which the sky becomes a metaphor for eternity and transcendence.
In the Ravennate mausoleum, the deep blue vault envelops the viewer’s gaze in a silent and contemplative dimension, suspended between matter and spirituality.
This mosaic, measuring 17 × 17 cm, reduces the monumentality of the original to an intimate scale, without losing the evocative power of the historical model.
The rhythm of the andamento, the distribution of the tesserae, and the dialogue between the dark background and the luminous tesserae faithfully recall the language of ancient mosaic art.
Each tessera has been cut and laid by hand, following the Ravennate tradition and its technical rigor, with particular attention to light and the vibration of the surface.
The work takes shape as a fragment of sky, a timeless image that preserves memory, silence, and depth, carrying into the present the visual legacy of one of the most iconic places in the history of mosaic art.