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XXXVI. Ohservalions on Mosaic^ and the most cehlrated 

 Works of that Kind, both antient and modern^. 



M, 



OSAIC is a kind of painting by means of small bits 

 of glass, stone, wood, enamel, and other substances of dif- 

 ferent colours, cemented to some surface bv some sort of 

 mastic, and which may be executed in such perfection that 

 at a little distance a common eye would take it for real paint- 

 ing. The common name mosaic comes from the Italian 

 musdico, derived from the Greek word musakion^ used in the 

 lower ages to denote those kinds of works called in Latin 

 musivum. 



Though this kind of painting was very common among 

 the antients, Pliny speaks neither of works in mosaic nor of 

 artists who exercised it. We cannot judge, therefore, of the 

 mechanism of the art hut from the manner in which it is 

 executed by the moderns, and from the antient monuments 

 of this kind which have been preserved. To construct works 

 in mosaic, the artist first forms a ground of flat stones, bor- 

 dered with bands of iron and surrounded with a solid rim of 

 stone. This ground is covered with thick mastic, in which 

 the coloured pieces of glass, stone, &:c. are implanted accord- 

 ing to the design traced out on the ground ; and during his 

 labour the artist has before him the painting he intends to 

 copy. This mastic ac(juires the hardness of stone, and when 

 the whole has sufficient consistence it is polished in the same 

 manner as glass. As the splendour, however, which mosaic 

 then acquires prevents the design from being accurately di- 

 stinguished, large works intended to be viewed at a distance, 

 such as those placed in ceilings, cupolas, &c. are not polished. 

 The art has been discovered of giving to the colour of the 

 glass as many different shades as are necessary for executing 

 paintings of every kind. T!ie artist in nu)saic, wliile at work, 

 has the pieces of glass, marljle, &c. ranged in cases according 



* From Magazin Emyc/opJdujue, Vol. VI. No. 9?. 



Vol. IX. O o to 



Phil. Mag. No. XXXVI. 

 Maij 1801. 



