MOSAIC. 



MOSAIC. 



790 



Doves described by Pliny as the chief work of Sosos. Cardinal 

 Furietti, who first described this work, counted 160 cubes of marble 

 in one square inch. It was secured for the Capitol by Clement XIII. 

 No less famous are the mosaics of the ' Rape of Europa,' found at 

 Preneste, and now in the Barbarini Palace at Rome; and that _ of 

 ' Hercules delivering Hesione,' found near Arpino, and now in the 

 Villa Albani at Naples. Some exquisite examples of this class of 

 mosaics have been found at Pompeii ; among others, the noblest yet 

 known, a large piece consisting of many equestrian and other figures, 

 representing, as is supposed, the ' Battle of Issus,' and which is com- 

 posed of innumerable small cubes of glass. It is one of the most 



admirably designed examples of Grseco-Roman art extant, but the exe- 

 cution is not equal to the design. It was found in 1831 in the Casa 

 del Fauno, and is now in the Royal Museum of Naples. Another very 

 celebrated example was found in April, 1762, in the house kuown as 

 the Villa of Cicero ; it represents four masked figures playing on various 

 instruments and dancing, and bears the name of the artist Dioscorides 

 of Samos. (Fig. 2.) Of more exquisite workmanship and in all 

 respects a fine example of Grseco-Roman art is a mosaic representing 

 a Choragus, or Master of the Chorus, instructing his actors in their 

 parts, which was found in what was called from it the House of the 

 Choragus at Pompeii. (Fig, 3.) 



HC. S. 



Another description of mosaic work in vogue among the Romans 

 was that called Opm teetile, which consisted of larger pieces of coloured 

 marble very carefully fitted together into pictures of a simple kind, 

 something like what is now practised under the name of Florentine 

 work : this is sometimes called Ojjiu Alerandrinum, from having been 

 first introduced by, or in the reign of, Alexandrinus Severus. Another 

 kind, again, was executed in wood, and known as ieymentaUuai. 



On the decline of the Western Empire, this, like the other arts, was 

 practised principally in Constantinople, where a school of workers 

 in mosaic was formed, which for many centuries furnished artists 

 for Italy, and through Italy for the rest of Europe : and, until 

 the revival of art, mosaic was the usual method adopted for mural 

 decoration in the churches of Italy. The Byzantine type of Christian 

 mosaic dates from the 4th century, and continues down to the 12th, 

 when it began to be superseded by a native Italian style. The 

 walls and vaulted ceilings as well as the pavements of several of 

 the basilicas in Rome and its vicinity are decorated with Byzantine 

 mosaics of the 4th and 5th centuries. One of the best known o these 

 is that of Santa Maria Maggiore, but the mosaics have been much 

 repaired. An older mosaic is the representation of Christ and two 

 Apostles, in the church of Sta. Constantia, erected by the Emperor 

 Coustantiue. Some remains' of the Roman school, however, seem to 

 have lingered on, and the Christ in the church of SS. Cosmo and 

 Uamiano, of the 6th century, is believed to be quite free from Byzan- 

 tine influence. Later, however, this influence was paramount, and 

 extended even to England. Churches now mostly had in their apses a 

 huge mosaic of Christ, his hand resting on a book, either above or 

 surrounded by his apostles, technically called a Majesty. Some of the 

 beet examples of these are in the churches of Ravenna ; but the same 

 uncouth, expressionless, conventional type is apparent in all. By the 

 8th century, Byzantine mosaic had degenerated into mere rigid manu- 

 facture, carried on by fixed monastic rules, and it did not revive till 

 the time of the Comneni in the 12th century, and then soon to relapse 

 into ite previous state. Some of the Byzantine mosaics, however, of 

 this date have a certain splendour of effect from being of large size, 

 and executed in vivid colours on a gold ground. The tessera; of which 

 the Byzantine mosaics are formed, are very irregular in size, and the work- 

 manship is often extremely coarse. Many of these Byzantine mosaics 

 are remarkable for their large amount of Orientalism of character. 

 Among the rich examples in the cathedral of Monreale, near Palermo, in 

 the church of San Mininto of Florence, and elsewhere, are patterns 

 almost exactly like those found in Saracenic tracery. 



One of the most remarkable mosaic works in Italy consists of the 

 decorations, external as well as internal, of the church of St. Mark at 

 Venice, which extend in all over some thousands of square feet of 

 surface. For this great undertaking a very large number of Byzantine 

 workmen were in the llth century brought from Constantinople; and 

 even some of the mosaics were, it is said, imported also. But native 

 art was beginning at this time to revive in Italy, and this and other 



great undertakings no doubt acted as a strong stimulus to native 

 genius. In the 13th century, Andrea Tafi, Gaddo Gaddi, and even 

 Cimabue and Giotto, designed mosaics, and in a newer and nobler style 

 than the people had been accustomed to see. Italian musaicisti began 



I to be employed upon the works of St. Mark, which were, with all the 



: wealth of Venice, prolonged over several centuries ; and eventually a 

 native school was formed, which carried the art to its utmost perfection, 



I so that, as Vasari observed, " it would be impossible to accomplish 

 greater things with colours." Indeed, as Lanzi remarks, " The church 



i of St. Mark remains an invaluable museum, where, commencing with 

 the llth century, we may trace the gradual progress of design belonging 

 to each age up to the present, as exhibited in many works in mosaic, 

 beginning from the Greeks and continued by the Italians." 



Mosaic was in its most nourishing condition in the 1 6th century, when 

 the Byzantine had come to be throughout Italy, with the exception 

 perhaps of Naples, superseded by a native school. At this time the 

 most distinguished painters as Titian and Veronese in Venice, and 

 Raffaelle in Rome did not disdain to make designs for execution in 

 mosaic. But it soon after declined from its pre-eminence. Before 

 fresco painting, in the hands of the great masters who practised it, 

 mosaic was compelled to give way ; and though it found ample patro- 

 nage from the popes for the decoration of St. Peter's the most mar- 

 vellous work executed in mosaic subsequent to St. Mark's, and has 

 continued to be prosecuted with continued success down to the present 

 time, it has long been employed mainly in producing copies of pictures, 

 and not in embodying original design. 



Mosaics of this kind came into vogue in the 17th century, when, in 

 consequence of some of the frescoes of Raffaelle, Da Vinci, and other 

 great painters, having already decayed from being painted on damp 

 walls, it was desired to have comparatively imperishable copies of 

 them ; and this kind of work is that now almost exclusively practised. 

 In the Vatican there is a workshop devoted exclusively to preparing 

 the mosaics of St. Peter's, and a similar establishment is maintained in 

 connection with the cathedral of Monreale in Sicily. Mosaics of this 

 kind are facsimiles of the original pictures, and have merely the 

 effect of paintings produced in the usual way, although beyond all com- 

 parison more laborious and tedious in their process, and necessarily, 

 from the nature of the process, lacking their freedom and play of 

 hand. As each separate piece of glass is of the same colour through- 

 out, the graduation of tints, the melting off of any one colour from 

 its highest light to its darkest shadow, can be obtained only by an 

 immense number of small pieces, of whicli those contiguous to 

 each other exhibit scarcely any perceptible difference to the eye. It 

 has been said that no fewer than ten thousand different tints, all of 

 which must be kept methodically sorted and arranged, are requisite 

 for this kind of mosaic-work ; the preparation of such a palette there- 

 fore, for anything upon an extensive scale, must of itself be a task of 

 great labour and time, as well as expense ; besides which the execution 

 is so entirely mechanical, that it is fit only for copyists. Some of the 



