The Theodosian style tended to mix naturalism and hieratic stylization. The symbolic cleavages in the rock have a long history ahead of them in Orthodox Christian art. Greek key design mosaic, ca. 430 A.D., from the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna. I meant this shot to illustrate the use of tesserae, but aging film ruined the intense color or the original.
Theodosian mosaics are noteworthy for tesserae with a glassy surface and intense color.
The aim was to create an uneven surface that shimmered in the artifical light needed to see them. The illusionistic treatment of the Greek key is as rather old fashioned in taste. A mosaic of exceptional quality and subject. The Theodosian style is a beautiful, courtly style, which lasted only from end of the fourth century to the early fifth century in the west, but significantly longer in the Eastern Roman Empire, especially at Constantincople, as this examples shows. The opus vermiculatum placement of tesserae in circular swirls emphasizes the linear outlines of the youth.