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MOSAIC WORK.--The art of mosaic work has been known in Rome since the
days of the republic. The severer rulers of that period forbade the
introduction of foreign marbles, and the republican mosaics are all in
black and white. Under the empire the art was greatly improved, and not
merely by the introduction of marbles of various colours, but by the
invention of artificial stones, termed by the Italians _smalti_, which
can be made of every variety of tint. This art was never entirely lost.
On the introduction of pictures into Christian temples, they were first
made of mosaic; remaining specimens of these are rude, but profoundly
interesting in a historical point of view. When art was restored in
Italy, mosaic also was improved, but it attained its greatest perfection
in the last and present century. Roman mosaic, as now practised, may be
described as being the production of pictures by connecting together
numerous minute pieces of coloured marble or artificial stones; these are
attached to a ground of copper by means of a strong cement of gum mastic,
and other materials, and are afterwards ground and polished as a stone
would be to a perfectly level surface; by this art not only are ornaments
made on a small scale, but pictures of the largest size are copied. In
former times the largest cupolas of churches, and not unfrequently the
entire walls, were encrusted with mosaic. The most remarkable modern
works are the copies which have been executed of some of the most
important works of the great masters for the altars in St Peter’s. These
are in every respect perfect imitations of the originals; and when the
originals, in spite of every care, must change and perish, these mosaics
will still convey to distant ages a perfect idea of the triumphs of
art achieved in the fifteenth century. The government manufactory in
Rome occupies the apartments in the Vatican which were used as offices
of the Inquisition. No copies are now made, but cases of _smalti_ are
shown, containing, it is said, 18,000 different tints. Twenty years were
employed in making one of the copies I have mentioned. The pieces of
mosaic vary in size from an eighth to a sixteenth of an inch, and eleven
men were employed for that time on each picture. A great improvement was
introduced into the art in 1775 by the Signor Raffaeli, who thought of
preparing the _smalti_ in what may be termed fine threads. The pastes
or _smalti_ are manufactured at Venice in the shape of crayons, or like
sticks of sealing-wax, and are afterwards drawn out by the workman at a
blow-pipe, into the thickness he requires, often almost to a hair, and
now seldom thicker than the finest grass stalk. For tables and large
articles, of course, the pieces are thicker; but the beauty of the
workmanship, the soft gradation of the tints, and the cost, depend upon
the minuteness of the pieces, and the skill displayed by the artist. A
ruin, a group of flowers or figures, will employ a good artist about two
months when only two inches square, and a specimen of such a description
costs from £5 to £20, according to the execution; a landscape, six
inches by four, would require eighteen months, and would cost from forty
to fifty pounds. This will strike you as no adequate remuneration
for the time bestowed. The finest ornaments for a lady, consisting of
necklace, ear-rings, and brooch, cost forty pounds. For a picture of
Paestum, eight feet long, and twenty inches broad, on which four men were
occupied for three years, £1,000 sterling was asked.
I shall now notice the mosaic work of Florence. It differs entirely
from Roman mosaic, being composed of stones inserted in comparatively
large masses; it is called work in _pietra dura_. The stones used are
all more or less of a rare and precious nature. In old specimens the
most beautiful works are those in which the designs are of an arabesque
character. The most remarkable specimen of this description of pietra
dura is an octagonal table in the _Gubinetto di Baroccio_, in the
Florence Gallery. It is valued at £20,000 sterling, and was commenced
in 1623 by Jacopo Detelli, from designs by Ligozzi. Twenty-two artists
worked upon it without interruption till it was terminated in the year
1649. Attempts at landscapes, and the imitation of natural objects, were
usually failures in former times, mere works of labour, which did not
attain their object; but of late works have been produced in this art,
in which are represented groups of flowers and fruit, vases, musical
instruments, and other compatible objects, with a truth and beauty which
excite the utmost admiration and surprise. These pictures in stone are,
however, enormously expensive, and can only be seen in the palaces of the
great. Two tables in the Pilazzo Pitti are valued at £7,000, and this
price is by no means excessive. These are of modern design, on a ground
of porphyry, and ten men were employed for four years on one of them,
and a spot is pointed out, not more than three inches square, on which a
man had worked for ten months. But Florentine mosaic, like that of Rome,
is not merely used for cabinets, tables, or other ornamental articles;
the walls of the spacious chapel which is used as the burial-place of
the reigning family at Florence are lined with pietra dura, realising
the gem-encrusted halls of the Arabian tales. Roman mosaic, as we have
seen, is of great value as an ally to art; but Florentine mosaic can have
no such pretensions, and time and money might be better bestowed. The
effect is far from pleasing in the chapel I have alluded to, and I think
that the art might be advantageously confined to the production of small
ornaments, for which it is eminently adapted.--_The Civil Engineer and
Architect’s Journal._