290 Ohservations o?i Mosaic* 



to their different shades, hke a printer's types. The art of 

 making mosaics in rehef is said to' have been invented, several 

 years ago, by Pompeo Savini, of Urhino. Archenholz, in his 

 Picture of Italy, asserts, however, that no work of importance 

 was ever executed according to this method. Some have also 

 tried to saw through mosaic works in a transversal direction, 

 in order to multiply them. According to Bjornstahl, in the 

 second volume of his Travels, Pompeo Savini was the first 

 person who tried this method at Rome. It appears that 

 pavements in coarse mosaic, executed among the antients, 

 were not made at the same period as those of more delicate 

 workmanship. The place where it was necessary to implant 

 the mosaics were in the former left more delicately termi- 

 nated. Thus at Herculaneum, according to Winkelman^, 

 there was found, in the middle of a coarse mosaic pavement, 

 a portion of mosaic of more delicate workrnanship, wjiich did 

 not adhere to the rest, and which only had a relation to it. 



It appears that the origin of niosaic ought to be ascribed tQ 

 the different compositions of hard stones employed by the 

 orientals as ornament, and of which we find a striking ex- 

 ample in the ornaments of the high-priest amorg the Jews. 

 It is observed in general that all nations among whom civil- 

 isation has made little progress are fond of splendid and varie- 

 gated colours : we find, therefore, that mosaic was in great 

 esteem during the first centuries of the French monarchy, 

 as is proved by the mosaics with which Clovis caused the 

 church of St. Peter and St. Paul, at present that of Sainte- 

 Genevieve, and the tomb of Fredegouda, to be ornamented; 

 and hence it became usual to cover surfaces with coloured 

 bodies according as their figures permitted them to be joined, 

 and to ornament buildings, pavements, ceiling-s, &c. with 

 stones of different colours. It is probable that the Persians, 

 Babylonians, and other people of the Ea'Jt, whose countries 

 abounded with hard stones, were acquainted with th.is kind 

 of embellishment. They displayed a considerable degree of 

 ingenuity in executing flowers, animals, &c. by the combi- 

 nation of pieces of stone of different colours: this was the 

 extent of their art ; but it was the Greeks who introduced 

 into this process that taste and perfection which entitle it to 



the 



