The
most ancient works in mosaic are found amongst the Egyptian jewels.
They consist of pieces of glass variously painted, and in enchased gold
setting.
Many pavements of the Greco-Romano period were great mosaics of square marble of every colour. This work was called opus musivum.
After
the fifth century, mosaic was used in the walls and ceilings of
churches, no longer in heavy marble, but in bright square enamels,
united and supported by a stucco, over a great surface, with the utmost
exactness, of which we have a splendid example in the Basilica
Constantiniana of St. Sophia, and St. Mark's at Venice.
In
jewels of the period of Charlemagne, carnelian, plasma, and other
agates have been found, set in gold, like the enamel of Egyptian work.
In
the seventeenth century, at Florence, and soon after at Dresden, they
made mosaics of pietra dura, that is, of agate, jasper, and other gems,
worked separately first into the desired form on the wheel, and then
fixed with cement into gold, bronze, or marble, to form elegant tables,
beautiful ornaments, or pretty feminine adornments.
The
mosaic workers of the Vatican, in the eighteenth century, began to make
mosaics of glass, in very small proportions, and thus originated the
so-called Roman mosaics, which were and are still executed by artists
of no little cleverness, who adapt this kind of work to every kind of
ornament.
