Mr Wilson on the State of the Arts in Italy. 95 



and when the originals, in spite of every care, must change 

 and perish, these mosaics will still convey to distant ages a 

 perfect idea of the triumphs of art achieved in the fifteenth 

 century. The government manufactory in Rome occupies 

 the apartments in the Vatican which were used as offices of 

 the Inquisition. No copies are now made, but cases of smaltl 

 are shewn, containing, it is said, 18,000 different tints. 

 Twenty years were employed in making one of the copies I 

 have mentioned. The pieces of mosaic vary in size from an 

 eighth to a sixteenth of an inch, and eleven men were em- 

 ployed for that time on each picture. 



A great improvement was introduced into the art in 

 1775 by the Signor Raffaelli, who thought of preparing the 

 smalti in what may be termed fine threads. The pastes or 

 smalti are manufactured at Venice in the shape of crayons, or 

 like sticks of sealing-wax, and are afterwards drawn out by the 

 workman at a blow-pipe into the thickness he requires, often 

 almost to a hair, and now seldom thicker than the finest grass 

 stalk. For tables and large articles, of course, the pieces are 

 thicker ; but the beauty of the workmanship, the soft gradation 

 of the tints, and the cost, depend upon the minuteness of the 

 pieces, and the skill displayed by the artist. A ruin, a group of 

 flowers or figures, will employ a good artist about two months 

 when only two inches square, and a specimen of such a descrip- 

 tion costs from L.5 to L.20, according to the execution ; a 

 landscape, six inches by four, would require eighteen months, 

 and would cost from forty to fifty pounds. This will strike you 

 as no adequate remuneration for the time bestowed. The 

 finest ornaments for a lady, consisting of necklace, ear-rings, 

 and brooch, cost L.40. For a picture of Paestum, eight feet 

 long, and twenty inches broad, on which four men were occu- 

 pied for three years, L.1000 Sterling was asked. 



I shall now notice the mosaic work of Florence, before 

 touching on cameo-cutting. It differs entirely from Roman 

 mosaic, being composed of stones inserted in comparatively 

 large masses ; it is called work in pietra dura. The stones 

 used are all more or less of a rare and precious nature. In 

 old specimens the most beautiful works are those in which the 

 designs are of an arabesque character. The most remarkable 



