Relatively few buildings dating to the fourth century CE remain standing, and very few retain even a portion of their original decoration. The chapel of Sant’Aquilino in Milan, the subject of this new book, is one of those surviving few, and therefore holds an important place in the history of the architecture and architectural decoration of the late antique period (ca. 300–600 CE). The book’s publication followed the 2017–19 restoration of the building and its decoration directed by Antonella Ranaldi, head of the Soprintendenza di Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio di Milano, the government agency responsible for the archeological and artistic patrimony of Northern Italy’s largest city. Ranaldi is also editor of the volume and author of several of its chapters; other contributors are twelve specialists who collaborated in the restoration.
The first sections of the book address the original building, including its function, patron, and construction, and its mosaics,...
University of California Press