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Doubting Thomas, Mosaic in the Narthex, 11th CE Giclee Print 24 in. x 18 in. Buy at AllPosters.com Framed Mounted A mosaic is a design formed by embedding small stones, vitreous or enamelled cubes in cement. The method is an outgrowth of inlay. A remarkable piece of mosaic dating from c. 3500 B.C. was excavated at Ur. Thought to be a standard, it is executed in lapis lazuli and pink sandstone attached to a wood background with bituminous cement. On one side it shows an army going into battle; on the other, a king or noble at a feast.
Mosaic was a common type of decoration in Greece in the Late Hellenistic period and the name given to it, 'Opus Alexandrinum', points to Alexandria as a centre for the work. But few examples can be dated earlier than the Roman occupation. The Romans excelled in the art of floor mosaic; fragmentary examples are to be found wherever they established themselves, in France, England, Germany, Sicily and North Africa. A few wall mosaics were found at Pompeii and Herculaneum. Roman mosaics were usually simple in colour and generally consisted of all-over geometric patterns or a central rectangular field surrounded by an ornamental border.
Large pictorial compositions such as the famous 'Battle of Issus' and the figure compositions at Piazza Armerina in Sicily were rare. The use of mosaic for interior wall decoration, the full development of the possibilities of the medium in a dimly lit room, were characteristic of the Christian era. Several examples of Early Christian mosaics on the walls of catacombs are preserved in Rome. When the ban on Christianity was removed by the Emperor Constantine the technique of mosaic was used to adorn church walls, and stone cubes were replaced by brilliant pieces of glass, thus making available a magnificent new gamut of colour. The earliest examples of Christian mosaics in churches date from the 4th century.
In S. Costanza, Rome, the barrel ceiling is covered by a series of mosaic patterns. The most famous fragment represents a vintage scene with the grape gatherers climbing through the vines which are supported by a geometric lattice. Only two of the mosaics are Christian in subject. From the same century, but late, come the mosaics on the apse will of the S. Rufina e Segunda Oratory, opening into the Lateran Baptistery, consisting of green acanthus fronds strewn across a blue field; and contemporary with these are the low tinted group of mosaics in the east end of S. Pudenza, Rome. Among the more important mosaics of the 5th century is the remarkable frieze in the church of St George, Salonica which runs all the way round the sloping walls, just below the dome. The frieze is architecturally designed in two columned storeys with an occasional personage, life-size and splendidly apparelled, stationed at the entrance of the lower one. They represent bishops, saints, soldiers, or the months of the year, and one is a flute player inscribed with his name, Philimon. The background of these mosaics is gold, but the rendering of the figures harks back to classical traditions. The masterpiece of early mosaic is, however, the mausoleum of Galla Placida, Ravenna. The interior of the Baptistery, Ravenna, is also dominated by the great 5thcentury mosaic picture of the Baptism decorating the ceiling.
By the 6th century the gold background was general in mosaic. The celebrated mosaics at Ravenna in S. Apollinare Nuovo, S. Vitale and S. Apollinare in Classe all testify to the increasing stiffness and abstraction of the mosaic, while S. Vitale, the work of the Emperor Justinian, shows that mosaic -- with its jewel-like texture and the ease with which it could render the rigidly monumental and the imposingly monotonous -- was the medium which was suited to the Byzantine artist. In Istanbul a different school of Byzantine mosaic had developed, of which the decoration of S. Sofia is the earliest ( 6th century) and most impressive example. The scale is larger than in Italy and the ornament used is oriental in feeling and remote from classical influence.
The type of mosaic elaborated by the Byzantines with its glittering gold ground dominated the art for the next 700 years in Istanbul and was responsible for the dazzling interiors of Monreale Cathedral (1170-90), the Martorana and the Capella Palatina, Palermo ( 12th century). At Monreale a particularly awe-inspiring example can be seen of a motif first used at S. Sofia, the single great head or bust of Christ in the apse. In St Mark's, Venice, the mosaics of the narthex and baptistery are oriental in conception and the vaults and domes of the main body of the church are also eastern in spirit, though the figures, dating from the 12th to the 16th century have been much repaired and disfigured. In Italy, mosaic was gradually ousted by mural painting but in Istanbul and Greece it remained the chief form of church decoration until the fall of Constantinople in 1453.
Mosaics were an extremely common form of floor decoration in medieval Italy. They consisted of small pieces of marble cut to stock shapes and the most frequently used colours were red, dark green, white, black and sometimes creamy yellow. The patterns made were all geometric. Among innumerable examples, those of St Mark's, Venice, and S. Maria Maggiore, S. Maria in Trastevere and S. Clemente, in Rome, deserve special mention. During the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries> this type of decoration was used not only for floors but for parapets, choir screens and altar frontals. There are many examples in Rome and southern Italy. When this type of mosaic was used for church furniture there was a gradual tendency for glass or enamel to be substituted for the original stone. Such mosaics are known as Cosmati work, after the name of the family who were the chief exponents of the art during the 13th century. Not only were flat surfaces decorated in this way, but spiral columns, like those in the cloisters of St John Lateran, were ornamented with Cosmati work.
In Muslim countries special types of mosaic were evolved. Exterior mosaic decoration used in Persia took the form of small rectangular tiles put together to form geometric patterns deriving in some instances from the shapes of Arabic lettering. The remarkable development of tile decoration in Persia led gradually, however, to the abandonment of mosaic. The Islam architecture of India is often embellished with skilful and elaborate marble mosaics in which intricate curvilinear patterns are further enhanced by the use of precious and semi-precious stones. Except when the medium was distorted to imitate painting, mosaic art almost completely disappeared in Europe with the full development of the Renaissance.
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