In the Bible, God creates through speech. He says the Word, and it is. “God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). But in the various depictions of God in the Creation mosaics of the Cathedral of Monreale, Sicily, he never opens his mouth. His creative work requires only the slightest gesture. He tilts his head, and the heavens appear. He extends his arm, and trees sprout leaves. His right hand—raised in the classic Roman oratorical gesture called ad locutio—is enough to convey speech. The cathedral mosaics present the Creation as the supreme act of […]
