Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/54

* MORTUARY CUSTOMS. 42 MOSAIC. inonuiiicnts (q.v.) became more elaboiate, and the moilern cemetery differs I'rom the primitive memorials in degree rather than in kind. AscKii'Tlox.s TO THE l)KAi». The custom of cu- lo{.'izing the dead is extremely i)rimitive and an- cient. The Polynesians had professional bards who composed elegies which were committed to memory and i)rcscived. Tliese v<Me recited on special occasions when the dead were mentioned. The American Indians had a solemn style of speech for such occasions quite ahovo the grasp of the ordinary man, while the great epics of Greece and Home abound in passages over the dead of dee])est pathos. Here, too, belong the entire body of epitaphs, or memorial inscriptions placed on tombs in honor of the dead who are laid in them. See Bi-kial. MORVI, mdr-ve'. A native (iujarat State of Bombay. India, on the Katliiawar Peninsula. Area, 821 square miles. Population, estimated at 100,000. Capital, Morvi. MOSAIC (ML. mosaicuf!, Gk. jaowaros, mou- saios. mosaic, artistic, relating to the Muses, from (ioDiTo, iiioiisu, .Muse). A branch of fine art which was especially prominent during the Mid- dle Ages, though not luiUnown to antiquity, and is .still practiced to a limited extent. .Mosaic work, when it attained full growth, hail various branch- es. It was used: (1) on lloors ; (2) on walls; (3) on detached objects, monuments or furniture. It consisted of the grouping of pieces of marble, glass, or enamel so as to form ornamental or figured compositions. In the opus scctilc the thin marble plates were cut so as to follow the out- lines of the design, and it is not properly a branch of mosaic. Ojiii/f IcHfii'lhiliiiii is the best technical term, the tcssrila; meaning the small cubes form- ing the mosaic. Marble cubes were used for floors altogether, though glass was occasirmally mingled with them in the .Middle .ges. Fin- wall compositions, architectural details, and furniture, though marbles were at first used almost exclu- sively, the possibility of producing a greater variety of shades in artificial enamels led to their exclusive use on walls as early as the fifth century and in furniture after the eleventh cen- tury. The cubes used for figures were usually smaller than those used for decorative work. Some are as small as three millimeters, more than one hundred tlwaisand being containe printers' type. To exectite a wall composition the mosai- cist prepared his cartoons; the mason plastered as large n .section of the wall as could be covered in n (lay; the mosnicist stenciled or dotted his car- toon on to the wet plaster and then rapidly fastened to it the mosaic cubes. The surfaces were (latli'ned, washed, and burnished. Tn the best work the cubes are not absolutely evc^n or adjacent, so that mechanical effects arc avoided. Oiii(!i. The Greeks before Alexander ap- parently did not practice any kind of mosaic work; it first appears in the .Alexandrian age. and probably originated in Kgypt. ft came into prominence for its reproductions in permanent form of famous paintings on the floors of public and private buildings. We even hear that scenes from the Trojan War were represented on lloors of the great ship of Hiero of Syracuse. A famous tloor at Pompeii represents in a grand composi- tion a scene of Alexander's victory at Issus, full of action and variety. Even larger and niori' com- plicated is the Xile scene of a lloor found at Palestrina, with its inundated city, its fishing and other genre scenes. Roman JIosaics. Although the Romans were not ignorant of the use of glass cubes on walls, they never developed this branch of mosaic work; the fountains and niches at Pompeii and Ostia are almost the only surviving examples. But in their pavements they showed the greatest variety, from the simple crude geometric designs in black and white to the exquisite gradations of cidor and form in such works as the Capiloline doves, the landscapes from Hadrian's villa in Rome and Berlin, the Pompeian actors by Dioscoridcs in Naples, the portraits of poets and philosophers at Cologne, and many more. Midway between stand such colossal works as the gladiator pave- ment of the Baths of Caracalla. Roman mosaic pavements of artistic value have been fotmd not only througliout Italy, but in France. Spain, Ger- many, Hungary, Xorth Africa, Syria, and Asia ilinor. Kakly Christian. In the fourth century. Christian artists perceived the value for church inferiors of the rich coloring and permanency of mosaic. No form of painting harmonizes so well with architecture. Jlosaics were i)laced nearly always in the apses and on the tviumphal arches of the early Christian basilicas, and in impor- tant cases upon the walls of the nave, and some- times both on the inside and outside walls of the facades. The interiors of mausoleums and bap- tisteries were covered with them on dome, walls, and apse. While the upper part of the walls was decorated in this w.av with figured mosaic com- position, the geometric mosaics or opus sectile were used on the dadoes below, and the marble geometric mosaics covered the floors. In the later iliddlc -Ages, the twisted columns, sepulchral monuments, altar canopies, pulpits, choir screens, and other details were entirely inlaid in geo- metric designs, in the Fast and in Italy. The wealth of works is concentrated in Italy and in the purely Hellenic world. Rome anil Ravenna had special schools with offshoots at Naples, Milan. Grado, and Parenzo. Constantinople and Thessalonica, also, were independent centres, radiating over (Jreek lands. Rome preserves the earliest Christian works at Santa Costanza. similar to Catacomb frescoes, and at Santa Pudenziana. the eounterjiart of the Christian sarcophagi with Christ and the .pos- ties. The earliest series where mosaic painting attempts a great scheme of subjects taken from the Old and New Testaments is in Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, on apse, triumphal arch, and nave. The mosaics over the chancel arch of Saint Paul's, representing subjects from the .pocalypse. date from the fifth century. In both cases the composition is still confused, the art has not yet found itself. II was from Greek artists lli.it the solution cnmc. in the introduction of the uniform irold background, against which the figures stood out clearly, as compared with the old white ground. .t Ravenna we see this stvle in its earliest glor>' in the two baptisteries (fifth century), and especially in the mau.soleum