Italian Artisans Finish Mosaics At Greek Orthodox Church

It’s the final day of the mosaic installation at the Dormition of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church of the Hamptons, and Father Constantine Lazarakis says he is thrilled with the outcome.Over the entryway to the church, on the outside of the building, a depiction of the Assumption of Mary sparkles in the sun, featuring 650,000 mosaic tiles designed by master mosaicist Sirio Tonelli, one of the last remaining experts in Byzantine iconography. Two mosaicists from Italy wash wheat germ paste from the tiles gently, after placing each tile by hand, mimicking the motions practiced by tile artisans for the past almost two millennia.

“Byzantine mosaics date back to the 5th or 6th century,” Fr. Lazarakis said. “But it’s a dying art. There’s only a handful of people left who do it. Sirio resurrected the art almost single-handedly in the 1960s, but he’s about 95 years old now.”

Nevertheless, in a couple of weeks, Mr. Tonelli will make the trip across the Atlantic to see his work completed. “He’s done about 60 churches in the U.S.,” said Fr. Lazarakis.

Another mosaic, over the entrance to the Culture Center, which juts off the side of the church, features a tiled interpretation of Raphael’s “The School of Athens,” with a bevy of Greek philosophers in discussion. Three more mosaics grace the ceiling in the narthex, or antechamber, all of them designed in Mr. Tonelli’s studio, and shipped over to the church on St. Andrew’s Road in Shinnecock Hills.

“We really want to create a space and facility, and most importantly a community, that projects what the spiritual and cultural trust is,” said Fr. Lazarakis. “It’s not just the church, it’s a celebration of Hellenic culture—spiritual, architectural, philosophical traditions that really profoundly resonate with the human spirit. And the mosaics resonate with what’s eternal in the contemporary spirit.”