Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/647

 MOSAICS

589

MOSAICS

fore the shrine of St. Thomas in Canterbury cathe- dral, and that of the sanctuary of Westminster Abbey was laid, and the shrine of St. Edward the Confessor, with its inlaid mosaic, was executed. Concerning this last, Robert de Ware was sent by the king to Rome in 1267 to procure workmen for the ornamenta- tion of Westminster Abbey and to erect a new monu- ment to St. Edward the Confessor, that made in 1241 not being good enough. The abbot brought back with him one "Petrus", who laid the mosaic pave- ment before the high altar and executed the tomb for the golden shrine of St. Edward. That this Petrus was an eminent person is without doubt. There are

dency to what may be called Gothic development. His accessories show his cosmatesque affinity; this is very noticeable in the throne of the Blessed Virgin in S. Crisogono.

Mosaic work of the period remains at Salerno, Naples and Ravello; at Feranio there are mosaics by Deodato Cosmos (1332); at Orvieto by two religious, Ceco Vanni and Francesco; at Pisa (in 1321) by Vi- cino, who finished that commenced by Cimabue from the designs of Gaddo Gaddi. Andrea di Mino and Michele worked in the cathedral of Sienna, and Deo- dato Cosmos worked at Teramo. Charles IV called ItaUan mosaicists to Prague; they also worked at

recorded many artists of this name, but he who, in the opinion of Mr. PVothingham (American Journal of Archceology, 18S9, 186), did the work in St. Ed- ward's Chapel was Petrus Orderisi, son of Andreas. Horace Walpole (History of Painting in England, T, 17) considers that the artist so called was Pietro Cavallini; both these artists may be termed Cosma- tesrhi. A portion of the inscription reads: hoc opus

EST FACTUM QUOD PETEUS DUXIT IN ACTU.VI ROMANUS CIVIS.

The work of the fourteenth century in Rome and in Italy generally was a continuation of that of the thir- teenth, the design towards the end of the era becoming influenced by the rising art of the more western styles. In St. Mary Major's the "Coronation of The Blessed Virgin" was commenced at the conclusion of the thir- teenth and completed early in the fourteenth century; it. is signed bj' the celebrated artist and mosaicist. Jacobus Torriti. Gaddo Gaddi designed the smaller subjects underneath, soon afterwards. The same artist is said to have completed the work in St. Peter's left by Torriti. He was then called to Arezzo to do the vault of the cathedral, which fell away before the end of the century. Torriti also did the apse of St. John Lateran's; Filippo Rusuti designed the "maj- esty", and Gaddo Gaddi the lower subject of the fa- <;ade of St. Mary Major's, Rome. A mosaic by Munio de Zamaro, a Dominican who died in 1300, is on the floor of St. Sabina's. At the beginning of the century the work in St. Mark's, Venice, was contin- ued. A mosaicist, Solferino, did the dome at Spoleto; and the apse at Parenzo was filled with moasic. Per- haps the most important developments of the art are sh.jwn in the subjects decorating the lower part of the apse of S. Maria in Trastevere [Fig. 12]; in 1291 these subjects were commenced by Pietro Cavallini, who is said by Vasari to have been a pupil of Giotto, although this is questioned by modern critics on fairly substan- tial evidence. He was the most celebrated Roman artist of his time and his designs, while adhering more to the Byzantine than those of Giotto did, show a ten-

GrLEK MOSiir-WORK

ona.'rtPry, Stiris, Phocis

Marienweide and Marienburg, but the art did not apparently thrive in Germany. Mosaic was, how- ever, being rapidly superseded by fresco, which as a primary art giving the sentiment and character of the artists immediately, was of course much more esteemed by persons of discrimination than a mere copy in tesserte, or slabs of opaque glass. Hence in the fifteenth century the cessation of mosaic work in Italy generally was very notable, except in the case of churches in which it had been commenced. Some little was done in St. Peter's, and the work in St. Mark's, Venice, was continued in 1430, when in the chapel of the Mascoli the "Life of the Blessed Virgin" was designed and executed by Grambono. Mosaicists named Petrus, Lazarus, Sylvester, and Antonius also worked there. In Florence, Alessan- dro Baldovinetti (1425-1450) did a mosaic for St. John's and restored that in San Miniato; he studied the making of sinalli, etc. from a German and wrote a work on the technique of the art. He was the master of Domenico Ghirlandajo, who not only did the mo- saic of the "Assumption" over a porch of the cathe- dral and those unfinished in the chapel of St. Zeno- bius, but also designed some of the painted windows in S. Maria Nuova, and whose brother David also followed the same vocation and in 1497 worked at Orvieto and Siena. A specimen of David's work is in the Musde de Cluny. Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, son of Domenico and a friend of Raphael, has certain later mosaics attributed to him.

In the sixteenth century the work of St. Mark's was still c:irried on and a great many artists of reputation were engaged on the designs. The mosaics executed in this cathedral. (•Dniiricncing in l.')30, are far too numer- ous to rec;i])itulali' here, and are perhaiJS less fitted to the building lliaii any hilherlo placed; in fact, that greatest of painters, Titian, when rendered in mo- saic, becomes coarse, heavy, and, on occasions, gro- tesque. Other works 'Were designed by Tintoretto, Salviati, and the best Venetian artists of the day, and rendered in mosaic by Zuccati, Rizo, Mariano, and