The tiny tesserae allowed very fine detail, and an approach to the illusionism of painting.
There were two main techniques in Greco-Roman mosaic: opus vermiculatum used tiny tesserae, typically cubes of 4 millimeters or less, and was produced in workshops in relatively small panels which were transported to the site glued to some temporary support. Splendid mosaic floors are found in Roman villas across North Africa, in places such as Carthage, and can still be seen in the extensive collection in Bardo Museum in Tunis, Tunisia. Most recorded names of Roman mosaic workers are Greek, suggesting they dominated high quality work across the empire no doubt most ordinary craftsmen were slaves. Greek figural mosaics could have been copied or adapted paintings, a far more prestigious artform, and the style was enthusiastically adopted by the Romans so that large floor mosaics enriched the floors of Hellenistic villas and Roman dwellings from Britain to Dura-Europos. Pliny the Elder mentions the artist Sosus of Pergamon by name, describing his mosaics of the food left on a floor after a feast and of a group of doves drinking from a bowl. Mythological subjects, or scenes of hunting or other pursuits of the wealthy, were popular as the centrepieces of a larger geometric design, with strongly emphasized borders. Many materials other than traditional stone, ceramic tesserae, enameled and stained glass may be employed, including shells, beads, charms, chains, gears, coins, and pieces of costume jewelry.īronze Age pebble mosaics have been found at Tiryns mosaics of the 4th century BC are found in the Macedonian palace-city of Aegae, and the 4th-century BC mosaic of The Beauty of Durrës discovered in Durrës, Albania in 1916, is an early figural example the Greek figural style was mostly formed in the 3rd century BC. Modern mosaics are made by artists and craftspeople around the world. Such mosaics went out of fashion in the Islamic world after the 8th century, except for geometrical patterns in techniques such as zellij, which remain popular in many areas. Roman and Byzantine influence led Jewish artists to decorate 5th and 6th century synagogues in the Middle East with floor mosaics.įigurative mosaic, but mostly without human figures, was widely used on religious buildings and palaces in early Islamic art, including Islam's first great religious building, the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, and the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. Mosaic fell out of fashion in the Renaissance, though artists like Raphael continued to practice the old technique.
Mosaic art flourished in the Byzantine Empire from the 6th to the 15th centuries that tradition was adopted by the Norman Kingdom of Sicily in the 12th century, by the eastern-influenced Republic of Venice, and among the Rus. Early Christian basilicas from the 4th century onwards were decorated with wall and ceiling mosaics. Pebble mosaics were made in Tiryns in Mycenean Greece mosaics with patterns and pictures became widespread in classical times, both in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Mosaics have a long history, starting in Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BC. Mosaic today includes not just murals and pavements, but also artwork, hobby crafts, and industrial and construction forms. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly popular in the Ancient Roman world. Each row of 3 pictures represents a style: Ancient Greek or Roman, Byzantine and Art NouveauĪ mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface.
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