Façade mosaic (detail)

Around 1300 the work of Roman mosaicists extended to the exteriors as well. At Santa Maria Maggiore mosaics were not only added to the interior but also to the outside of the apse and the fa�ade. Only the fa�ade mosaics, commissioned by the cardinals Jacopo and Pietro Colonna, have survived. They are now hidden behind the eighteenth-century narthex and bear the Signature of Filippo Rusuti. In their upper section they picture Christ enthroned between angels and saints, but in the lower one are four scenes recounting the story of the basilica’s founding. No other works by Rusuti have survived.