Mosaic
is a decorative art form that is achieved by joining together individual
units or pieces of stone, glass, etc. to form a unified whole with its
own individual identity. The mosaic is dependent on the unit or combinations
of units from which it is made, and the way in which separate and unify
these units. The unit is known as the tessera, meaning four-cornered or
small cube. Tessera may be made from marble, stone, glass, pebble or a
variety of other substances.
The art of mosaic has always played a dual role, being both decorative
and functional. Its enormous potential in interior design and architecture
as a functional flooring, wall or even ceiling cover has been exploited
for centuries.
In some of the earliest-known mosaics found in Ancient Mesopotamia between
the Tigris and the Euphrates, now Iraq, in around 3000 bc, tapered clay
pegs were pushed into mortar rendering on walls to reinforce the structure.
The circular heads of these pegs were coloured and they were arranged in
geometric patterns on the rendered surface. In its decorative, aesthetic
role, mosaic probably owes much to the ancient art of inlaying found both
in Ancient Egypt as Ancient Mexico. Marks and ornaments as well as weapons
of war were inlaid or encrusted with mosaic. Various mosaic techniques
were developed at that time; the Mexicans, for instance, used turquoise
as an attractive material to apply to the surface of votive or ceremonial
objects. Their interest last lay in the beauty of the stones and creating
a rich textural surface, unlike the Romans who developed more formal methods
of shaping and laying stones (termed “opus”).
The Graeco-Roman times saw great advances in mosaic, initially in a solely
functional way as floor or ground coverings, and then, as its decorative
potential grew, as wall panels of narrative realism. A more naïve
and lively style also emerged, often featured around fountains in gardens,
where units of found objects such as shells and stones were introduced.
Floor mosaic proved a durable and practical surface in domestic and public
places, much in the way carpets and tiles are used today. The finest examples
are of stone and marble cut into tesserae to form highly decorative patterns
of great imagination and visual delight. Superbly preserved mosaics are
found throughout the countries of the Roman Empire, and they were even
incorporated into synagogue floors in Israel. Often emblemata were introduced.
These were inserted panels of more intricate work, designed to arrest the
eye or to act as a central focal point in the overall scheme or theme.
It is thought these emblemata were prepared away from the mosaic site in
trays or even hessian and later transferred to their permanent position.
Colours in the early mosaics tended to be of natural stone – green, blue,
ochre, white, terra cotta and black – but gradually highlights of glass
were added, probably as early as the second century BC.
The following period, Christian-Byzantine, saw a great flowering of abstract
mosaic work. Mosaic art was greatly patronized, and its visual power was
used to full effect in major Christian churches such as in Ravenna. (Later
the same artists were to decorate the mosques of Jerusalem and Damascus.)
This official encouragement inspired an era of technical and artistic experiment.
Full use was made of the new material, glass smalti, and a unified system
of decoration and hierarchical expression developed. A real understanding
of colour emerged. It was discovered that by angling smalti in the mortar,
their full reflective quality could be exploited in brilliant plays of
light and shadow across the surface. More important still was the realization
of the abstract power of form through conceptual imagery as opposed to
realism.
A further period of great mosaic activity was in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries when the vast decorative schemes of Venice, Greece, Sicily
and Rome were created to enhance the Christian religion.
In the fifteenth century the Conquistadors in Central America were using
mosaic with great skill to cover ritual objects, employing turquoise and
other natural stones on wood, stone, shell and even skull bases. Regular,
square tesserae were mainly used and the emphasis was on colour and texture
rather than imagery. The process used mosaic like a jewelled skin.
Meanwhile, in Europe, during the Italian Renaissance , there was a gradual
decline of interest in mosaic as a decorative art form in its own right.
Painters used mosaic to create facsimiles of their work, pitture per l’eternita,
where the fragmentation of the tesserae was so concealed that it was no
longer a true mosaic but took on the sheen and semblance of an oil painting,
as seen for example in Raphael’s The Transfiguration in St. Peter’s, Rome.
Later, in the eighteenth century, mosaic degenerated into a miniaturist
curiosity, where individual smalti tesserae were melted down and drawn
into threads of glass known as smalti filati. These were used to compose
micromosaics with as many as 1,400 tesserae to the square inch. This misplaced
expertise showed technical virtuosity but missed the true qualities of
mosaic. It was not until the great decorative revival of the Art Nouveau
period that mosaic was to be rediscovered and given fresh vigour.
Gustav Klimt, 1862-1918, whose paintings are quasi-pointillist, had a taste
for the decorative. He visited Ravenna in 1903 and enthused about the mosaic
he saw there. In his murals for the dining room for the Palais Stoclet,
Brussels, he incorporated smalti with paintings and specially commissed
decorative tiles and ceramic shapes.
Antoni Gaudí, 1852-1926, was a pioneer in the decoration of exterior
walls with mosaic. He wanted the outer surface of a building to create
its own effect. He worked within the Spanish-Moresque tradition by using
glazed tiles, and unlike Klimt who had expensive materials made for him,
Gaudí used debris and objets trouvés. By applying these fragmented
materials as a skin around forms, he led the way for three-dimensional
work and sculpture to be applied with mosaic.
The inventiveness of Gaudí was to influence the politically conscious
Mexican painters and muralists of the 1950s. Using the less expensive vitreous
glass, and drawing their imagery from the Pre-Columbian art of the Maya
and Teotihuacan cultures, they encrusted public buildings with huge mosaics
created in the name of Social Realism. Diego Rivera, D. A. Siqueiros, José
Chauvez Morado and Juan O´Gorman headed this dynamic mosaic force.
Once again the essential power of mosaic was used as the visual expression
of a strong belief. Islamic art continued to use mosaic as an architect-related
art form using pre-shaped coloured ceramic tiles inlaid in a geometric
tessellation.
Many twentieth-century artists have used mosaic as their medium: Jeanne
Reynal and Joseph Young in America; Hans Unger, Boris Anrep and Eberhard
Schulze in Britain; and Jean Bazaine in France. Experiments were done with
found objects, and in various form-sculpture, free-standing mosaic work
and projects on a vast scale. Alongside this inventiveness, however, grew
a rather sterile, deadening use of mosaic as a relatively cheap cladding
material for the façades of civic and commercial buildings. This
misappropriation did much to depopularize mosaic as a true and valid art
medium, and this trend was encouraged by many well-known artists who, instead
of using mosaic as an expressive medium in its own right, had their paintings
translated into durable glass and stone interpretations, or “pictures for
eternity”, by expert artisans in the workshops of the Vatican, Ravenna,
Spilimbergo and Venice. Marc Chagall, Hans Erni, Oskar Kokoschka, and many
others used mosaic in this way.
However, the true spirit of mosaic was kept alive in the mid twentieth-century
by Simon Rodia (Watt’s Towers, Los Angeles, U.S.A.); Raymon Eduoard Isidore
(La Maison Picassietti, Chartres, France); Niki de Saint Phalle (II Giardino
dei Tarocchi, Tuscany, Italy); and Nek Chand (The Rock Garden, Chandigarh,
India). Their expressive, naïve inspiration has emerged from an untutored
response to mosaic, and all of the artists have experimented with the use
of a variety of materials including scrap, glass, china, metal and ceramic
in a unique architectural and sculptural way.
Today, many artists are using mosaic as their artistic medium, rejoicing
in both its formal qualities and also in its expressive versatility. Artists
working in the medium include the following – a selective list that is
by no means exhaustive: Lucio Orsoni, Felice Nittolo and Mimmo Paladino
in Italy; Jane Muir and Arthur Goodwin in Britain; Claude Rahir in Belgium;
Alexandre Korooukhoc in Russia; and Jerry W. Carter and Susan Bacik in
the U.S.A.
Mosaic is an appealing medium and mosaic-making is easily adaptable do
domestic conditions. There are no special requirements other than a will
to explore a natural sense of pattern that is in all of us, combined with
a practical approach to working in a relatively slow way, It is time consuming,
but can be enjoyed by all. Even the simplest mosaics often have great appeal.