Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/182

 94 NOTICES OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS. temples of Salonica, and of Ravenna. Mosaic is Byzantine and Christian ; and the Arahs, who have merely borrowed architecture, have even bor- rowed a great portion of their embellishment.' " Want of space obliges us to omit a passage we had marked as desirable to transfer to our Journal, relative to Medieval mosaic north of the Alps ; but which we must, therefore, only refer our readers to. (Pages 13 and 14 of Mr. Wyatt's book, under the date of 850.) Having expressed our opinion as to the matter of this work, and inviting our readers, by a perusal of the original, to form their own judgment as to its able execution, we shall rather (very briefly) dwell upon its pictorial value. In a series of one-and-twenty Plates, Mr. Wyatt has provided us with a selection of such specimens of mosaic as he deemed most available for reproduction in this country in the present day, and were the revival of the art but practicable, of which he declares there is little or no doubt, there can scarcely be imagined more valuable models for imitation. The first half-dozen engravings are devoted to representations of some of the most beautiful pavements of that variety of mosaic known as Opus Alexandrinum, and common in the more celebrated churches of Italy and Sicily. Those in Plates VII. and II., from the Basilica of San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura, Piome, and from the Church of San Marco, in the same city, are as ingenious and harmonious in form as they are in colour. The succeeding seven Plates which furnish us with examples of the Opus Grecanicum, or glass tesselated work, in all the luxury of gold and tint, suggest to the ornamentist almost endless combinations and variations, and will prove, we doubt not, at least as valuable to schools of design and manufacturers, as to antiquarians. The two succeeding engravings serve to illustrate the application of this material, and furnish us with beautifully executed representations of two of the incrusted columns in the cloisters of San Giovanni in Laterano, of two fragments from San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura, and of the pulpit of the Church of the Aracseli, at Ptome. The remaining subjects are, for the most part, specimens of the richest variety of ornamental mosaic — the glass tesselation, — and supply a variety of beautiful borders, and ornaments, many of them admirably suited for execution as mural decorations by means of stencils. They are obtained principally from the Cathedrals at Venice, and Monreale, near Palermo. On the whole, the work is the result of considerable care and labour, and will, we have little doubt, prove eminently useful to all interested either in the history and theory of art, or in tlie practical restoration and decoration of ancient ornamentation, civil or ecclesiastical.