BAPTISTERY CEILING
FLORENCE ITALY
Image Number 154
According to Dan Brown (The Inferno) legend proclaims that it is physically impossible, upon entering the Baptistry of San Giovanni, not to look up. High overhead, the baptistry’s octagonal vault spans more than eighty feet from side to side. It glistens and shimmers as if made of smoldering coals. Its burnished amber-gold surface reflects the ambient light unevenly from more than a million tiny ungrouted mosaic pieces hand-cut from a glassy silica glaze - arranged in six concentric rings in which scenes from the Bible are depicted.
TECHNICAL NOTES
The image was taken with a hand-held Phase One 645 Camera at ISO 200 and rested on a pew. Exposure of 1/13th second and aperture F2.8. 45 mm Phase One lens. The image was captured on a Phase One IQ180 80 megapixel digital back.