Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/884

852 MOSAIC are filled by grand sweeping curves of acanthus and other leaves, drawn with wonderful boldness and freedom of hand, and varied with great wealth of invention. With out the use of very small tesserae, much richness of effect is given by gradations of tints, suggesting light and shade, without a painful attempt to represent actual relief. The colours of the marbles used here and elsewhere by the Romans are so quiet and harmonious that it would have been almost impossible to produce with them a harsh or glaring design, and when used with the skill and strong artistic feeling of the mosaic-workers at Carthage the result is a real masterpiece of decorative design. In Rome, and in the Roman colonies of Europe, this kind of marble tesselated mosaic was largely produced, with but little alteration in style or method of treatment, till the 4th century. In Syria and Asia Minor the art survived some centuries later. Perhaps the latest existing example in Rome is that which deco rates the vault of the ambulatory of the circular church of S. Costanza, built by Constantino the Great (320), outside the walls of Rome. This very interesting mosaic might from its style and materials have been executed in the 1st century, and is equal in beauty to any work of the kind in Italy. It shows no trace what ever of the Byzantine influence which, in the next century, intro duced into Italy a novel style of mosaic, in materials of the most glittering splendour. These S. Costanza mosaics are almost unique in Italy as an application of the old classical marble mosaic to the decoration of a Christian church. On the main compartment of the vault the surface is covered by vine branches, laden with grapes, twining in graceful curves over the space. In the centre is a large medallion with life-sized male bust, and at the lower part are vintage scenes oxen carts bringing the grapes, and boys treading them in a vat. Other more geometrical designs, of circles framing busts and full-length figures, with graceful borders, cover other parts of tlie vault. Farther east this classical style of mosaic appears to have lasted till the 6th century. At Kabr-Hiram, near Tyre, M. Renan discovered among the ruins of a small three-apsed Christian church a fine mosaic pavement, covering the nave and aisles, thoroughly classical in style. The design, consisting of circles enclosing figures emblematic of the seasons, the months, and the winds, is almost the same as that of some mosaics discovered on the site of the Roman Italica near Seville, and others at Ephesus and Halicarnassus in Asia Minor. No trace of other than classical influence is visible, and yet it is pretty clear, from the evidence of an inscription, inlaid among the marble tesserae, that the date of this pavement is not earlier than the latter part of the 6th century. A very similar mosaic, of about the same date, was discovered at Neby Yunas, near Sidon. Medieval Mosaics. These may be divided into four principal classes : (1) those used to decorate walls and vaults, made of glass cubes ; (2) those for pavements, made of marble, partly in large shaped pieces, and partly in small tesserjfi ; (3) glass in small pieces, either rectangular or triangular, used to enrich marble pulpits, columns, and other architectural features ; (4) wood mosaics. 1 . The wall mosaics were, in their origin, purely Byzan tine, and appear to date from the beginning of the 5th century. They are made of coloured glass, rendered opaque by the addition of oxide of tin. The melted glass was cast into flat slabs, generally about half an inch thick, and then broken into small cubes. Every possible colour and grada tion of tint was produced by the mediaeval glassmakers. Tesserae of gold (which were very largely used) and of silver were made thus : the metal leaf was spread over one of the glass slabs, the colour of which did not matter, as it was hidden by the gold or silver ; over this metal- coated slab a skin of colourless glass was fused, so as to protect the metal leaf from injury or tarnish ; and then the slab was broken up into cubes, the ^^ot pixreoi of Byzantine writers. The method of putting together the mosaic was much the same as that employed by the Romans in their tesse lated pavements. A thick coat of cement was applied to the wall or vault, the outline indicated with a metal point, and the cubes stuck one by one into the cement while it was yet soft, the main difference being that no rubbing down and polishing were required, the faces of the glass tesserae showing the natural surface of the fracture, which was not quite level, and by this slight inequality of surface great additional lustre and brilliance of effect were given to the whole picture. Owing to the intense conservatism of Byzantine art, no regular stages of progression can be traced in this class of mosaic. Some of the 5th century mosaics at Ravenna are, in every way, as fine as those of the 12th, and it was not till the end of the 1 3th century that any important change in style took place, when Cimabue, and more especially his pupils Jacopo da Turrita and Taddeo Gaddi, applied their increased knowledge of the human form and of the harmonies of colour to the production of the most beau tiful of all mosaics, such as those in the apse of S. Maria Maggiore in Rome. It must not, however, be supposed that during all this time (from the 5th to the 14th century) one steady level of excellence was kept up. The mosaics of the 9th century are inferior in drawing and general treatment to those both of the earlier and later time, while in Italy at least this art was almost entirely extinct during the 10th and 1 1th centuries. Extreme splendour of colour and jewel-like brilliance combined with the most stately grandeur of form are the main characteristic of this sort of decoration. Its most frequent application is to the sanc tuary arch and apse of the early basilicas. A "majesty," or colossal central figure of Christ with saints standing on each side, is the most frequent motive. In many cases, especially in the 5th and 6th centuries, Christ was represented as a lamb, to whom the twelve apostles, in the form of sheep, are paying adoration. Christ, the Good Shepherd, is sometimes depicted as a beardless youth, seated among a circle of sheep the treatment of the motive being obviously taken from pagan representations of Orpheus playing to the beasts. The tomb of Galla Placidia has a good example of this subject, with much of the old Roman grace in the drawing and composition. Frequently the Virgin Mary, or the patron saint of the church, occupies the central space in the apse, with ranges of other saints on each side. The " Doom," or Last Judgment, is a favourite subject for domes and sanctuary arches ; the Florence baptistery has one of the grandest mosaic pictures of this subject, executed in the 13th century. The earlier baptisteries usually have the scene of Christ s baptism, the. river Jordan being sometimes personified in a very classical manner, as an old man with flowing beard, holding an urn from which a stream pours forth. S. Vitale at Ravenna has in the sanctuary a very interesting representation of Justinian and his empress Theo dora (see fig. 3), attended by a numerous suite of courtiers and ladies ; these mosaics are certainly of the 6th century, and may be contemporary with Justinian, though the fact that he and Theodora are each represented with a circular nimbus appears to indicate that they were not then alive. Scenes from both Old and New Testaments or the lives of the saints are also represented in almost endless variety, generally on the walls of the body of the church, in square-shaped pictures, arranged in one or more tiers over the nave columns or arcade. In mosaics of the best periods the treatment of the forms and draperies is broad and simple, a just amount of relief being expressed by delicate gradations of tints. In mosaics of the 9th century the drawing is very awkward, and the folds of the robes are rudely expressed in outline, with no suggestion of light and shade. A further application of this work was to the decoration of broad bands over the columns of the nave, as at S. Maria Maggiore in Rome, 5th century, and in the two churches of S. Apollinare at Ravenna, 6th century. In some cases almost the whole interior of the church was encrusted in this magnificent way, as at Monreale Cathedral, the Capella Palatina of Palermo, and S. Mark s at Venice, the magnificence of which no words can describe ; it is quite unrivalled by that of any other buildings in the world. See MONREALE. In these churches the mosaics cover soffits and angles entirely, and give the effect of a mass of solid gold and

colour producing the utmost conceivable splendour of