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The decoration of the Early Christian churches was mostly with mosaics. The late 4th-century apse mosaic of Santa Pudenziana, named in the text held in Christ's hand as 'ecclesia sancta pudentiana' - Pudens's church - is the most hieratically explicit, and clearly didactic.
The picture shows the central figure of the apse mosaic, Christ, depicted as teacher and lawgiver, although also enthroned in majesty as judge. He is seated in front of a hill, representing Golgotha, with a jewelled cross rising from it. The text of the open book indicates that Christ is the protector of the church.
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