#Cosmatesque
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phprudent.bsky.social
À l'intérieur de Santa Maria in Aracoeli, un bel exemple de pavement cosmatesque. #HDA
June 24, 2026 at 12:31 PM
daniel-46.bsky.social
#Architecture #Roma # church # SantaMariaMaggiore #art #mosaic
The interior of Santa Maria Maggiore. Some cosmatesque floors.
April 22, 2026 at 7:46 AM
helengittos.bsky.social
its cosmatesque pavement. In one corner of the crypt, there's a...
April 20, 2026 at 8:38 AM
ctrlcreep.bsky.social
The first stage of learning is linguistically motivated: swimming through terminologies, a sea of new words and shimmering word-colors; cosmatesque! opus sectile!? Knowledge like exotic rock formations
August 25, 2026 at 5:51 PM
ifashioned.bsky.social
Actually is a Cosmatesque pavement, but it's beautiful anyway.
architecture.bsky.social Architecture @architecture.bsky.social · Jan 3
900-year-old mosaic floor of the Cathedral of Civita Castellana, Italy
- 12th century
900-year-old mosaic floor of the Cathedral of Civita Castellana, Italy
January 3, 2026 at 9:37 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#Spolia pavement in the #Aracoeli for a very belated #SpoliaSunday, on Tuesday. The newly-rebuilt #Franciscan basilica was consecrated in 1268 but floor tombs continually disturbed the #Cosmatesque floor, creating the crazy-pavement of reused ancient stone we see here. #AncientBluesky 🏺
COSMATESQUE PAVEMENT, C. 1268. S. MARIA IN ARACOELI When the old Augustinian church and monastery of S. Maria in Capitolio were given to the Franciscan order in 1249, the new owners needed a far bigger church to host the huge crowds that came to listen to their sermons. The new church turned its orientation 90° and made the older church the transept of the new one. The floor was designed as white marble pavers separated by Cosmatesque stone inlays, mostly in the imperial stones, porphyry and serpentino. But occasionally the regularity of these borders gives way to chaos, as here, near the front door, where we find bits of mosaic tesseræ, some giallo antico and other stones, and a porphyry ivy leaf next to a serpentino diamond shape, both carefully framed with borders of triangular white marble pieces. All this is ancient spolia proclaiming the church's legendary connection with the emperor Augustus.
April 14, 2026 at 4:37 PM
2tout2rien.bsky.social
🧩✨ Un sol cosmatesque à Civita Castellana : la géométrie médiévale qui fait du grand art avec du marbre, de la mosaïque et des cercles parfaitement posés.
Oeuvre des Cosmati, célèbres maîtres marbriers romains vers 1210.

#Italie #MoyenAge #Architecture #Mosaïque #Art #Insolite
February 13, 2026 at 7:06 AM
phprudent.bsky.social
Beauté simple de la basilique Saint-Clément, avec son pavement cosmatesque, entre le Latran et le Colisée.
June 25, 2026 at 7:38 AM
daniel-46.bsky.social
#Architecture #Roma # church # SantaMariaMaggiore #art #mosaic #paint #sculpture
The interior of Santa Maria Maggiore is unique for its decoration: paintings, sculptures, mosaics (5th, 12th-14th centuries), Cosmatesque floors, ceilings (15th century) commissioned the best artists of their times.
April 21, 2026 at 1:01 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#SpoliaSunday takes us into the #VaticanMuseums, where visitors to the Stanza della #Segnatura, one of the #Raphael Rooms, walked across a #spolia marble slab inlaid with a #Cosmatesque version of the #crest of #NicholasV which was a reused C9 piece of a schola cantorum. #AncientBluesky 🏺
MARBLE SLAB: TOP PHOTO, COSMATESQUE CREST OF NICHOLAS V, C. 1450. BOTTOM PHOTO, ROMANESQUE PLUTEUS FROM A SACRED ENCLOSURE, C9 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS When this slab was carved for use in a schola cantorum or a presbytery enclosure in the C9, it was undoubtedly already a piece of spolia from some ancient monument. But it was carved with a typical Romanesque design of arches containing crosses, all richly decorated with guilloches, and six birds per arch carrying food in their beaks (a metaphor for the Eucharist), with couples of splendid grimacing wild felines. The reuse of classical motifs like the column, the arch, and the guilloche indicates a desire to associate the authority of the Church with that of the ancient empire. The same impulse can be seen in the 1450 inlay on the other side, which employs the imperial stones, porphyry and serpentine, to assert papal authority.
March 22, 2026 at 1:30 PM
archi-heritage.bsky.social
Decorative stone floors are often described as 'Marble' but this is an oversimplification:

Ardesia is slate
Basaltina is neither basalt nor marble but, limestone
Travertine is limestone
Perlatino di Sicilia is a fossiliferous limestone

Softer marbles wear more over time, creating an uneven surface
A mosaic stone sample kit with 68 stone tesserae The Cosmatesque floor in the Terracina Duomo
August 10, 2026 at 8:32 AM
bwallower.bsky.social
#SundaySermons
Exceptional C12 ambo/pulpit in Badia di Cava de' Tirenni, Campania: restored cosmatesque mosaic technique, as used in Westminster Abbey sanctuary.
Probably gift of King Ruggiero II of Sicily who wanted his Queen Sibilla to be buried in monastery.
+spot the #tinylions
May 11, 2025 at 3:14 PM
darrenmcleanuk.bsky.social
While a Cosmatesque style floor of marble such as this takes considerable planning and careful execution, the components are far more simple than it may appear.

There are actually only eight different shapes of contrasting colours in this floor.
A plan of a cosmatesque style floor of cut stone, typically marble, pieces.
June 24, 2025 at 8:17 PM
pdansmabul.bsky.social
fin XIe > XIIIe ,fut pratiqué en Italie(surtout à Rome) l'art cosmatesque;terme qui s'applique aux pavements(plus rarement aux murs) et à la technique de marqueterie de marbres.Le nom vient de Cosma,groupe d'artisans marbriers qui ont créé des œuvres >2 ⬇️
Église San Pietro alla Carita de Tivoli./photo LPLT
February 9, 2025 at 4:26 PM
traditionalarts.bsky.social
Decode the beauty of Cosmatesque design! Learn the geometry behind Rome’s medieval stone inlays and recreate these intricate patterns using just a compass and ruler.
https://schooloftraditionalarts.org/course/unravelling-cosmatesque-ornament/
January 15, 2026 at 9:01 AM
indamnatio.bsky.social
The Church of Sant'Agata dei Goti (Saint Agatha of the Goths) in Rome features a Cosmatesque ciborium thought to be from the 13th century

It was reassembled from fragments in the 1920s
May 4, 2025 at 8:48 AM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
For #SpoliaSunday we're descending into the lower church of #SSCosmaeDamiano in the #Roman #Forum to consider the puzzle of the #pavement, partially #Cosmatesque, partially just whatever was lying around. When was this floor made? It's a chaotic mess. #AncientBluesky 🏺
SPOLIA PAVEMENT, C13. CRYPT OF SS. COSMA E DAMIANO In 1632 pope Urban VIII Barberini ordered the floor of the palaeochristian church of SS. Cosma e Damiano to be raised 7 metres. This created a sort of crypt or lower church at the original ground level, though inconveniently divided by the huge supporting wall holding up the floor of the upper church, which created two parallel naves. None of the original floor of the church, founded in 527, seems to have survived, but some C12 Cosmatesque paving in the naves, itself made of spolia, survives, though badly damaged. The rest of the floor is a chaotic mess unlike any other church floor in Rome, more like something from the C7-C9, though the fragment of Cosmatesque work we see here argues a date no earlier than the C12. Different marbles are thrown together, broken pieces making a messy patchwork. A corner of the C9 altar sits atop the C2 tomb inscription of a child.
August 24, 2025 at 8:07 PM
thehillpaul.bsky.social
The apse features early Christian frescoes remnants of the original Cosmatesque marble floor.
August 17, 2025 at 5:28 PM
traditionalarts.bsky.social
Learn to draw cosmatesque patterns, a style of geometric inlay stonework from Medieval Italy.
https://bit.ly/42nVQsv
January 24, 2025 at 6:02 PM
sadwearpioneer.bsky.social
Some quick photos I took of fantastic opus Alexandrinum (decorative stonework inlay) and tile floors in/near Rome. Medieval and renaissance.
A swirly, colourful Cosmatesque floor in Vatican museum. Wonderfully ornamental 12th century floor by the Cosmati family craftsmen in Santa Maria in Cosmedin. Beautifully busy tile floor in three different tile formats and painted patterns in shades of blue in Vatican museum. Worn terracotta tile floor with geometric patterns at Villa D'Este.
March 1, 2026 at 5:36 PM
arthurwestwell.bsky.social
While marvelling at the beautiful cosmatesque mosaics at the Duomo di Civita Castellana in Lazio, I stumbled on a frieze depicting a hunting scene from the eighth or ninth century!!
March 15, 2024 at 5:40 PM
maskflowerprince.bsky.social
Also for #PalacesandGardens #PalaceRunway. Floor from the Ca' d'Oro (Palazzo Santa Sofia), a palace on the Grand Canal in Venice (2013). #Venice #Italy #GrandCanal #photography #travelphotography #EastCoastKin #ECK #WCK
This image features a detailed photograph of the ornate mosaic flooring in the open courtyard of Ca' d'Oro (the Galleria Giorgio Franchetti) located along the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. The stonework displays intricate Cosmatesque and Byzantine-style geometric patterns, meticulously inlaid using multicolored marble chips, porphyry, serpentine, and precious stones.
September 3, 2026 at 1:40 PM
bwallower.bsky.social
I agree: much Cosmatesque work in Italy, mostly complex geometric patterns eg C12 Cava de' Tirenni, Campania. Westminster also v complex geometric work w 536,098 bits of exotic marbles, porphyry, glass. Interviewed Rodwell+Neal for London Archaeologist, w David's Sanctuary painting on cover. See ALT
Elaborate Cosmatesque ambo in church of Badia di Cava de' Tirenni in Campania, recently restored. Cover of London Archaeologist featuring a portion of David Neal's very detailed painting of the Cosmatesque pavement in the Great Sanctuary of Westminster Abbey. He and Warwick Rodwell, the Abbey's Archaeologist, won the London Archaeological Prize for 2020 for their comprehensive 679 page publication of the history, archaeology, structure and context of the work in the Sanctuary, tomb or St Edward the Confessor and the chapel where it is placed.
August 10, 2025 at 2:02 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
Remember me. #SpoliaSunday brings a fragmentary C3 CE inscription from S. Crisogono in #Rome. But who are we remembering? The iron law of #spolia privileges utility over memory. The stone itself is a slab likely sliced from an earlier sarcophagus. #AncientBluesky 🏺
SPOLIA COSMATESQUE PAVEMENT WITH C3 INSCRIPTION, C. 1124. S. CRISOGONO ​Cardinal John of Crema, famous in England where he was papal legate for being caught in flagrante with a courtesan directly after Mass, commissioned this floor for his cardinalate church from the workshop of the Cosmati clan, who used nothing but spolia marble to create magnificent Oriental rugs in stone. Inset among complex geometric patterns of green, porphyry, and yellow stone triangles is a rectangular block of recycled white marble. The stone bears a clear, two-line Roman inscription. The top line reads CLAVDIA ATVLEIA ALEXA, featuring an elongated crossbar on the T that stretches over the subsequent V, and the bottom line reads MACEDON in large letters. Because "Claudia Atuleia" is in the nominative, she is not the deceased but the dedicant. She likely raised this monument to her husband, Alexa[nder] the Macedon[ian].
July 12, 2026 at 10:07 PM
romebeyond.bsky.social
The floors are a prime example of the Cosmatesque style, a type of geometric decorative inlay work that flourished in Italy during the 12th and 13th centuries. It's named after the Cosmati family of Roman artisans who specialized in this technique.
August 24, 2025 at 6:20 PM