Luke - cosmetic surgury

I ripped out Luke's upper lip yesterday. It actually wasn't too difficult to get the offending pieces out.

The changes were subtle - but they made a tremendous difference. First I replaced the line of white tesserae above the upper lip with some pieces of light brown marble. The white really stood out and seemed inappropriate. Second, I extended the upper lip (right side facing you) back to its original position but this time using stones which were a bit darker than before.

It's hard to see the differences, but they are significant. The upper lip is just a fraction larger and the tan line right above the lip seems more natural with the shadowing for under the nose.

Jennifer Blakebrough-Raeburn sent an email and made the observation that the Byzantine style made the mouth slightly elongated. I suspect this might be because people looked at mosaics from a distance and it was necessary to exaggerate parts of the face so that they would be more pronounced. With a smaller reproduction, this may not be as important. I think I'm ready to live with Luke's current mouth and move on with the mosaic.