MOSAIC WORK.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1860, 26 February 1892, Page 3

MOSAIC WORK.

Mosaic work is a species of inlaid work, by which a design is produced by joining together small pieces of variouslycoloured substance*. Work of this kind is of great antiquity, and it is believed to have had its origin in Asia. In the book ot Esther mention is made of a " p*vement of red and blue, and white and black marble,'' in the court of the garden of Kng Ahasueru?. Th's was without doubt a pavement of motaic work. In Greece, during the tiin* of Alexander, mosaic pwements made with variously-coloured marble were amongst ►umptuous decorations of the p-riod. These were for the most part geometric in design ; but Pliny mentions a celebrated work of Sosos of Pergamos—the " Unswept Hall " This was a pavement of inlaid work representing the crumbs and fragments left on the floor after the banquet. The ait was carried from Greece by workmen to Home, where it was called opus musivum, and acquired universal popularity, and soon came to be applied, not only to floors, but also to walls and c. i'ings In Italy, and in most of the countries occupied by the Romans, many floors ornamented with mosaic work have been fourd amongst old ruin". They consist generally of a centre piec.\ frequently of human beings or animals, with a brrder or frame of a regular pattern. The different parts of which the mosaic is formed consist of cubes of different-coloured stones or earthenware cemented together. Some exquisite specimens of this kind of mosaic work lave been found at Pompeii. One of the finest examples found is supposed to represent the battle of Issus, and was found in IS3I in the Casa del Fauno. In the fifth century, when the arts and sciences were driven from Italy, the art of mosaic work was preserved by the Byzantine Greeks, and was restored to Greece in the thirteenth century. It attained its h'ghest perfection at the beginning of the seventeenth century, when Clement VIII. had the whole of the interior of the dome of St. Peter's ornamented with mosaic work. Giambattista Calandra improved mosaic by the intrcduct on of a new cement. He and other artists who followed after him employed the art for copying original paintings by celebrated artists. One of the great advantages of this kind of work is its wonderful power of preservation, by which many of its painting are represented in all their original freshness and beauty. A school for mosaic was founded at the begiuring of the 18th century in Rome by Peter Paul, of Christopberis, and many of his pupils carried the art to a high degree of excellence. In modern times two kinds of mosaic are particularly famous—the Roman and the Florentine. In Roman mosaic the pictures are formed by joining very small pieces of stone, which gives grea'er variety, and facilitates the representation of large paintings In the Florentine style the mosaic is made of large pieces of stone, and is consequently more troublesome, and only adapted for small painting?. In the most costly mosaics precious stones have been cut to furnish materials j but in common works of this art enamels of different colours, manufactured for the purpose, are the materials employed.