How mosaics were created - an art that you want to touch with your hands: From the Sumerians to the USSR

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

It's hard not to love the mosaic - either for the deep philosophical meaning associated with the emergence of something new and whole from scattered, unremarkable fragments, or for childhood memories of sorting out colored pebbles, which, probably, everyone has. Works that you certainly want to touch, to which you are drawn to touch - this is what the art of mosaic is, and it has been that way for more than five millennia.

Mosaic in the ancient world

The oldest mosaic dates back to the fourth millennium BC - then the Sumerians decorated their palaces and temples with patterns: adobe walls were decorated with clay sticks about ten centimeters long, with peculiar “hats” that differed in color. Different shades were obtained due to the peculiarities of the composition of the clay - even then the ancient masters began to experiment with additives that would determine the color of the mosaic elements.

Sumerian mosaic is considered the oldest, and later the art of creating patterns and images by attaching elements of different colors and shades is associated with Ancient Greece. In terms of age, the mosaic of the city of Gordion, the ancient capital of Phrygia (now it is the territory of Turkey), is in the lead here. The Phrygian mosaic pattern consisted of untreated pebbles - this is how various ornaments were obtained, including the meander, which was indispensable for the ancient Greeks. The pebble mosaic was created from the 8th century BC.

Corinthian masters, starting from the 5th century BC, created not only patterns, but also images of gods, heroes of myths, people and animals. In the era of Hellenism, starting from the 4th century BC, mosaic as a direction of art flourished. It was said that the floor of Alexander the Great's camping tent was lined with a slab with mosaics; it was taken after the commander. The Greeks had already used colored glass and mastered the technique of "pinning" pebbles, when each pebble was provided a tighter fit to the neighboring ones, and the details could be reproduced with greater care.

Like many other areas of ancient Greek and Hellenistic art, mosaic successfully took root in ancient Rome, moreover, it became a very fashionable decoration of houses and temples, as well as baths and villas. The very word "mosaic" goes back to the Latin opus musivum, that is, "a work dedicated to the muses." In addition to pebbles and glass, pieces of marble were now used, in general, Rome came up with a lot of techniques and methods for creating mosaics. Mosaic floors were fashionable, the pattern on which could repeat well-known paintings, contain an interesting geometric or floral ornament, or simply embody the imagination of the owner of the house.

Fine examples of ancient Roman mosaics have survived in the city of Pompeii, including the "Battle of Issus", composed of one and a half million pieces of colored stones.

Byzantine mosaic and its influence on foreign craftsmen

But nevertheless, mosaic experienced its true heyday in the era when Byzantine masters took up this form of art. Then they used mainly smalt, pieces of opaque glass of different colors - the color was given by oxides of different metals, for example, iron, copper, zinc and mercury. In Byzantium they learned to arrange pieces-elements so that the surface of the mosaic was not smooth, but textured. This made it possible to create a special play of light and color, and since by this time Christian churches were the main place for the placement of mosaic art, this approach allowed creating a special mood and effect. Thin gold sheets - gold leaf were used as a background; both opaque smalt and transparent, light-transmitting elements were fixed on top, which literally transformed the space.

The skill of the Byzantines also spread to Italian cities, with which Constantinople had close ties, and it is not for nothing that Ravenna, a city not far from Venice, became the main center of ancient mosaic art. The earliest mosaic of Ravenna is in the mausoleum of Galla Placidia, daughter of the Roman emperor. The interior decoration of the mausoleum is the best evidence of how a mosaic can "change" space, transfer a person to other worlds - all this was achieved by a thoughtful and careful selection of elements and the creation of integral, complementary images.

Despite the years that have passed since the mosaic was made - more than one and a half thousand years - it looks almost the same as it was immediately after its creation - this is a feature of this type of art. In an unspoken competition with frescoes, the mosaic wins a crushing victory: even if it is in the open air, it does not lose its color and remains in its original form for centuries, especially if the climate with moderate temperature drops contributes to it.

Mosaic in Russia

But even in a harsher climate, the art of mosaic took root and developed - we are talking about Russia, which, with the adoption of Christianity, adopted this Byzantine tradition. Among the oldest are the mosaics of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev. True, time passed and the interior decoration of Russian churches began to be decorated with frescoes - the mosaic was forgotten until Catherine's times.

To revive this art - or rather, to develop its traditions in Russia - was undertaken by Mikhailo Lomonosov, who experimented a lot with pieces of smalt and was able to end up with 112 tones and more than a thousand different shades. In Lomonosov, not only a scientist, but also a man of art spoke, he conceived a huge mosaic picture glorifying the victory of Peter in the battle of Poltava. After several years of approvals, the project was launched, for four years the whole workshop created by Lomonosov worked on the creation of a mosaic with an area of more than three hundred square meters. And the result - disappointment and disgrace to the work - such that it was necessary to change its location nine times: for the wall of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, at the resting place of Peter I, according to the empress, this mosaic was not suitable. Now it is housed in the building of the Academy of Sciences on Vasilievsky Island in St. Petersburg. The creation of a truly significant piece of mosaic art turned out to be a matter beyond the control of Russian masters and was not limited to a simple selection of colored pieces looking at a sample. For a while, disappointment came from the idea of developing this art form in the Russian manner.

In the 19th century, interest in mosaics in Russia with the advent of modernism revived, Italian masters were invited to Russia, and Russian craftsmen, on the contrary, traveled to adopt the European experience of creating paintings from mosaics. In 1890, the Frolovs' workshop, father and son, was founded in St. Petersburg, the first private workshop to compete with the mosaic department of the Academy of Arts. The Frolovs created a mosaic on the facade of the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, as well as interior mosaic decoration; they received orders for the production of various kinds of compositions, both Orthodox and secular.

Mosaic of the Soviet era, on the one hand, was an extremely popular type of decoration for facades and interiors, on the other hand, it became associated with pioneer camps and canteens, somewhat spoiling the reputation of a once demanded and expensive form of art. Nowadays, interest in mosaic is back in fashion, and the legacy of the USSR even helps in some way to the development of conceptual directions: some masters successfully experiment with new materials, for example, stones and fragments of bricks.

Mosaic creation can follow the direct set path, when elements are attached, pressed into the ground. There is another way, the reverse set, when a pattern or image is created on cardboard or on another basis, which is then attached to the surface. But the mechanical side of the mosaic creation process is far from the main, albeit an important skill of the master.

Those who bring their plans to life, translating them from the realm of fantasy into something material, admit that the process of selecting elements and gradually filling the surface with them resembles magic, and even an ordinary person, far from this art, finds it difficult to resist the temptation to touch the finished mosaic, to touch to separate elements, which, joining at the will of the artist, form something new and integral.

Continuing the topic, a story about hundreds of square meters of mosaics and Mikhail Lomonosov's Theory of Colors of the “Universal Man”..