In 1954, Alberto Salietti signed an oil painting inspired by the mosaic of Justinian’s military parade in the basilica of St. Vitale, in Ravenna, naming it, In honour of the ancient Ravenna mosaic masters.
In close agreement with Ravenna mosaicists, and in particular with his cousin Giuseppe Salietti, the Director of Mosaicists’ Group of the Ravenna Academy of Fine Arts, Alberto commissioned the execution of his cartoons to young and already experienced Ravenna masters of mosaic art, with a particular eye to sacred art. “They should abide by the Ravenna manner,” wrote Alberto Salietti to Dandolo Bellini, paying a tribute to Ravenna artists’ matchless technical and compositive skill, honed by their familiarity with Paleochristian and Byzantine mosaics.
This attention to the “Ravenna school” during the recent decades, has given life to increasingly wide-ranging and interesting forms of collaboration that have led to mosaic art taking its place as a self-standing and extremely original language.