THE

Gentleman's Magazine

AND

HISTORICAL REVIEW.

MOSAICS.

(Concluded from p. 350.)

TWELFTH CENTURY.

IN Sicily, under the Norman dynasty, the churches were richly ornamented with mosaics, both inside and outside; the artists appear to have been of the Greek school, from Byzantium. The church of Martonara, at Palermo, is one of the best examples of this kind of decoration in Sicily; the work was executed between 1113 and 1139 (see next page).

It is probable that workmen from Egypt were also employed, and that the inferior kind of mosaic, called tessellated pavement, was re-introduced into Italy through this channel. The extensive use of tessellated pavements by the ancient Romans is too well known to need mention here, and belongs to another branch of the subject; but the art seems to have been lost, along with all the other fine arts, during the dominion of the Barbarians, and took refuge at Byzantium, until they were recalled to their native country in the more peaceful times which began towards the end of the eleventh century. There is, however, a distinction to be borne in mind between the tessellated pavements of the ancient Romans and those of later times. The ancient Romans used only square cubical tesseræ, although various materials were employed to produce different colours; and their tessera were not always of marble, as has been sometimes said. In the later mosaic pavements the tesseræ are not always square, but are cut to fit the places they are intended to occupy, and therefore often of very different forms: in these also various materials were used, such as coloured glass and pottery, when these were more convenient than marble or stone; these were, however, used rather for wall pictures than for the pavements.

In the church on the island of Murano in Venice the floor is laid with a rude tessellated pavement of this description, which is in a bad state and very uneven, having apparently suffered from inundations, but which is

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interesting from having an inscription executed in the mosaic itself, in a circle, giving the date of 1141.

About the middle of the thirteenth century some Roman mosaicists were brought over to England by Henry III., for the purpose of enriching the shrine of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey, and some of their work may still be seen upon it, though much mutilated. They also laid down the fine tessellated pavement on the platform for the high altar in the same church, which is in good preservation, and can be seen when the smoke and dirt are washed off, but is scarcely visible on ordinary occasions. They also laid down similar pavements on the altar platform at Fountains Abbey, and in the small church of St. Margaret, near Ripon, Yorkshire. It is very possible that they laid down other pavements in England, but these are all that we are acquainted with.

The cathedral of Capua has a mosaic picture in the apse, evidently executed by Byzantine artists under the Norman dynasty, as shewn by the character of the work, and more decidedly by the inscription under it. The subjects are the usual ones of this period, the Virgin seated on a throne with the Christ as a little man, holding a staff with a cross at the top; over the head of the Virgin a half figure of the Father in a circular panel, and between the two the holy Dove descending; on either side of the Virgin are St. Peter and St. Paul, St. Stephen and St. Agatha, and in the spandrels of the arch Isaiah and Jeremiah, with inscriptions on scrolls. Beneath the

picture is this inscription,

CONDIDIT HANC AULAM LANDULFUS ET OTO BEAVIT M. CENA RES MOREM vitreum dedit ugo decoreM.

Some of the best mosaics of the twelfth century are those in the church of St. Maria in Trastavera, or that part of Rome which is beyond the Tiber, rebuilt or restored by Pope Innocent II. in 1130-1143. On the exterior of the façade, in what we should call the west front, but which at Rome is by no means always to the west, is a representation of the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. In the centre is the Blessed Virgin on a richly ornamented seat, with the infant Christ at her breast; on either side are five female figures, richly attired, and with the nimbus; the five on the right hand have each a crown on her head and a lamp in her hand with a flame on the left there are ignorant copies of these, part of some repairs of a later time; the other two are genuine, these have no crowns, and no lights in their lamps.

On the hemispherical vault of the apse, or tribune, and on the arch of triumph in front of it, are other mosaics: that on the vault is very remarkable in many ways, and the subjects alone would mark its late date.

In the centre are the figures of Christ and the Virgin Mother seated on the same throne, the Virgin to the right; Christ has His right hand on the shoulder of His mother, and in His left holds a book with this inscription, VENI ELECTA MEA ET PONAM IN TE THRONUM MEUM. The Virgin holds a scroll on which is this inscription,- LEVA EJUS SUB CAPITE MEO ET DEXTERA ILLIUS AMPLEXARITUR ME. Three saints stand to the right of Mary, and four to the left of Christ: next to the Virgin is Pope Calixtus I. with his name inscribed; then St. Lawrence, and last Pope Innocent II., with the model of the church, as the restorer. Nearest to Christ on the left is St. Peter, then Popes Cornelius and Julius, the patrons of the previous church, and Calepodius the priest, who probably contributed to the rebuilding of the church. At the top of the vault is a half-rose, on which are the cross, the lamb, and the hand of the Father holding a crown over the head of Christ. Under the principal picture are the twelve sheep, with Jerusalem and Bethlehem at the two extremities, and the Holy Lamb in the centre standing on a hillock, from which flow the four rivers of Paradise.

Under the picture is an inscription, the two last lines of which are,— "CUM MOLES RUITURA VETUS FORET, HINC ORIUNDUS

INNOCENTIUS HANC RENOVAVIT PAPA SECUNDUS.”

Round the arch are-at the top, the Cross with A and 2, then the seven

b This word is so engraved; Ciampini reads it 'monia.'

c Ciampini, following Ughelli, endeavours to explain away this inscription in a very ingenious and amusing manner, and conjectures that there may have been persons of the same name under the Lombards in the ninth century; but it will not do, the work is evidently of the twelfth.