Mosaics have been called the eternal art form. The earliest applications are found in ancient pebble floor coverings and as embellishments to buildings in Sumeria where sectiles were pushed into clay walls to strengthen and adorn them.
In the main, however, mosaic as an art form covered two principal periods in history: First came the Greco-Roman period, which lasted from Alexander the Great to the fall of Rome. A famous example from this period is “The Battle of Isus” (2nd century BC) depicting the famous battle of Alexander against Darius. Other examples include the classic “black and white” mosaics such as Pompeii’s Cave Canem and the polychromatics made during Hadrian’s reign.
The second prominent era was the Paleo-Christian and Byzantine period which extended from the fall of the Roman Empire around 4th century AD to the gradual decline of mosaic in the 12th and 13th centuries. During this period, polychromatic mosaics and wall and vault glass and gold mosaics reached a “par excellence” pinnacle.
The magic of mosaic art begins when the intrinsic natural beauty of the mosaic material is first observed and secondarily from afar when the image begins to emerge from within the abstract of discretely arranged and close fitting mosaic stone and glass tesserae. The result is spectacular and eternally enduring.