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.
The finest of the later examples in Rome is that which decorates the vault of the ambulatory of the circular church of S. Costanza, built by Constantine the Great, 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 whatever of the Byzantine influence which, in the next century, introduced into Italy a novel style of mosaic, in materials of the most glittering splendour. Survivals of this classical style of mosaic are found in North Africa and the East. At Kabr-Hiram, near Tyre, Renan discovered among the ruins of a small three-apsed Christian church of the 4th century A.D. a fine mosaic pavement, covering the nave and aisles, thoroughly classical in style. A very similar mosaic, of about the same date, was discovered at Nebi Yūnas, 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 tesserae; (3) glass in small pieces, either rectangular or triangular, used to enrich marble pulpits, columns, and other architectural features; (4) wood mosaics.
1. In the Byzantine period the glass cube mosaic was exclusively employed in mural decoration. At first natural colouring was used, and backgrounds, if not in local colour, were generally blue; but the use of gold, both for backgrounds and for the high lights on drapery, &c., gradually prevailed. 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 13th century that any important change in style took place. 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 11th centuries. Extreme splendour of colour and jewel-like brilliance combined with the most stately grandeur of form are the main characteristics of this sort of decoration.
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 Theodora (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.
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, 4th 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.
Fig. 3.—Mosaic of Theodora and Attendants, from S. Vitale,
Ravenna; over life size.
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 decoration[1] In many cases vaulted ceilings Were covered with these mosaics, as the tomb of Galla Placidia, A.D. 450, and the two baptisteries at Ravenna, 5th and 6th centuries. For exteriors, the large use of mosaic was usually confined to the west façade, as at S. Miniato, Florence; S. Maria Maggiore, Rome; and S. Mark’s, Venice. In almost all cases the figures are represented on a gold ground, and gold is freely used in the dresses and ornaments—rich jewels and embroidery being represented in gold, silver, sparkling reds, blues and other colours, so as to give the utmost splendour of effect to the figures and their drapery.
The revival of the art of painting in Italy and the introduction of fresco work in the 14th century gave the deathblow to the
- ↑ Unfortunately the world-wide fame of S. Mark’s and the other great churches of Italy has subjected these extraordinary works to the fatal process of “restoration,” and wherever any sign of decay in the cement backing (the tesserae themselves are quite indestructible) has given the least excuse the “restorers” have destroyed whole masses of ancient work, and supplied its place with worthless modern copies. The mosaics of the S. Mark’s baptistery, and of the apses at S. Miniato, at Pisa, and many other places have in this way been wantonly renewed in recent times.
