Stronger Than Death – Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York

The exterior of the west facade of the basilica is divided in three registers: lower, upper, and domes. In the lower register of the façade, five round-arched portals, enveloped by polychrome marble columns, open into the narthex through bronze-fashioned doors. The upper level of mosaics in the lunettes of the lateral ogee arches has scenes from the Life of Christ (all post-Renaissance replacements) culminating in a 19th-century replacement Last Judgment lower down over the main portal that replaced a damaged one with the same subject. (During the centuries many mosaics had to be replaced inside and outside the basilica, but subjects were rarely changed).

Above the Logia, commencing on the left hand of the spectator,

1. The Deposition from the Cross
2. The Descent of Christ into Hades.
3. The Resurrection of Christ
4. The Ascension of Christ into Heaven.