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mosaic

mosaic

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. | 2008 | Copyright

mosaic , art of arranging colored pieces of marble, glass, tile, wood, or other material to produce a surface ornament.

Ancient Mosaics

In Egypt and Mesopotamia, furniture, small architectural features, and jewelry were occasionally adorned with inset bits of enamel, glass, and colored stone. Early Greek mosaics (5th-4th cent. BC) uncovered at Olynthus were worked in small natural pebbles. The use of cut cubes or tesserae was introduced from the East after the Alexandrian conquest. Roman floor mosaics were probably based upon Greek examples, and glass mosaics applied to columns, niches, and fountains can be seen at Pompeii. In Italy and the Roman colonies the floor patterns were produced both by large slabs of marble in contrasting colors ( opus sectile ) and by small marble tesserae ( opus tessellatum ). The tessera designs varied from simple geometrical patterns in black and white to huge pictorial arrangements of figures and animals; examples were found in Rome, Pompeii, Antioch and Zeugma (S Turkey), and N Africa.

Early Christian Mosaics

In the early centuries AD glass mosaics brought color and decoration to the broad walls of the basilicas. By the 4th cent. the triumphal arch between nave and apse and the walls above the nave arcades received mosaic adornment, while the entire domed apse was lined with a mosaic picture, generally of Jesus surrounded by saints and apostles.

In this period Byzantium (later Constantinople) became the center of the craft, which reached perfection in the 6th cent. Hagia Sophia exhibits glittering gold backgrounds—a special feature of Eastern mosaic art, which later spread to the West. A gold tessera was produced by applying gold leaf to a glass cube and covering it with a thin glass film to protect against tarnishing; for the other tesserae the colors were produced by metallic oxides. The tesserae were set by hand in the damp cement mortar, and the resulting irregularities, causing the facets to reflect at different angles, were an essential factor of effect. In the 5th and 6th cent. Ravenna became the Western center of mosaic art, and the Ravenna masterworks (e.g., the decoration of San Vitale), as well as those in Rome, show the Byzantine characteristics of stylized rigidity in the figures.

Medieval Mosaics

Through the importation of Greek workmen, a revival took place in Italy in the 11th cent. which lasted into the 13th cent., producing the beautiful mural works of Rome, of Saint Mark's Church and Torcello at Venice, and of Palermo, Monreale, and Cefalù in Sicily. Rich medieval marble and mosaic floors with geometric patterns appeared in Italy, Sicily, and the East. In Russia, especially in Kiev, remarkable figural mosaics were set into the walls.

From the 13th cent., mosaic in Italy and Sicily extended to many architectural elements, such as pulpits, bishops' thrones, paschal candlesticks, and the twisted columns of cloisters. These adornments are commonly termed Cosmati work, after the family of Roman artisans especially gifted in their execution. The rise of fresco decoration in the early 14th cent. in Italy superseded mosaic, which then began to deteriorate into mere simulation of painting, although it lingered in Venice, Greece, and Constantinople.

Modern Mosaics

The Gothic revival of the 19th cent. produced some modern attempts, as in Westminster Abbey and the houses of Parliament. In the 20th cent. the medium has been used with truer understanding of techniques, as in the modernist mosaics for the Stockholm town hall. In modern work the ancient system shares favor with a new method of fastening the tesserae with glue upon a paper cartoon drawn in reverse, applying fairly large sections of this into proper position upon the damp mortar, and then washing away the paper after the mortar has hardened and the tesserae have set.

Bibliography

See E. W. Anthony, A History of Mosaics (1935, repr. 1968); F. Rossi, Mosaics: A Survey of Their History and Techniques (1970); J. R. Clark, Roman Black-and-White Figural Mosaics (1985).

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mosaic

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | 2009 | Copyright

mo·sa·ic / mōˈzā-ik/ • n. 1. a picture or pattern produced by arranging together small colored pieces of hard material, such as stone, tile, or glass: the mosaic shows the baptism of Christ | [as adj.] a mosaic floor. ∎  decorative work of this kind: the walls and vaults are decorated by marble and mosaic. ∎  a colorful and variegated pattern: the bird's plumage was a mosaic of slate-gray, blue, and brown. ∎  a combination of diverse elements forming a more or less coherent whole: an incompetently constructed mosaic of competing interests. ∎  an arrangement of photosensitive elements in a television camera. 2. Biol. an individual (esp. an animal) composed of cells of two genetically different types. 3. (also mosaic disease) a viral disease that results in leaf variegation in tobacco, corn, sugar cane, and other plants. • v. (-sa·icked, -sa·ick·ing) [tr.] decorate with a mosaic: [as adj.] (mosaicked) the mosaicked swimming pool. ∎  combine (distinct or disparate elements) to form a picture or pattern: the digital data were combined, or mosaicked, to delineate counties. DERIVATIVES: mo·sa·i·cist / mōˈzāəsist/ n.

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mosaic

The Oxford Dictionary of Art | 2004 | | Copyright

mosaic. The art of making patterns and pictures by arranging small (usually multicoloured) pieces of glass, marble, and other suitable materials and fixing them into a bed of cement or plaster. It was first developed extensively by the Romans in pavements. But it is also well suited to the adornment of walls and vaults, and great use was made of wall mosaic by the Christian churches of Italy and the Byzantine Empire throughout the Middle Ages. As an exterior decoration it has sometimes appeared on the façades of medieval churches and in modern architecture (see O'Gorman). More rarely it has been made into portable pictures, or inlaid in furniture and small objects, as in the Aztec art of Mexico.
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IAN CHILVERS. "mosaic." The Oxford Dictionary of Art. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

IAN CHILVERS. "mosaic." The Oxford Dictionary of Art. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O2-mosaic.html

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mosaic

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists | 2003 | | Copyright

mosaic. The art of making patterns and pictures by arranging small (usually multicoloured) pieces of glass, marble, and other suitable materials and fixing them into a bed of cement or plaster. It was first developed extensively by the Romans in pavements. But it is also well suited to the adornment of walls and vaults, and great use was made of wall mosaic by the Christian churches of Italy and the Byzantine empire throughout the Middle Ages. As an exterior decoration it has sometimes appeared on the façades of medieval churches and in modern architecture (see O'Gorman). More rarely it has been made into portable pictures, or inlaid in furniture and small objects, as in the Aztec art of Mexico.
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mosaic

World Encyclopedia | 2005 | Copyright

mosaic Technique of surface decoration using small pieces of coloured material set tightly together in an adhesive to form patterns or pictures. The technique was employed for floor and wall decorations in ancient Mesopotamia and Greece. Roman mosaics commonly featured a central design or a portrait, surrounded by a decorative geometric border. The art developed rapidly in early Christian times especially during the 4th–6th centuries and continues to be used for floors, church interiors, and wall decorations.
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Mosaic

A Dictionary of the Internet | 2001 | | Copyright

Mosaic One of the first BROWSERS. It was developed at the NATIONAL CENTER FOR SUPERCOMPUTING APPLICATIONS. It is historically important because it was the first browser with a common interface that was available for a number of PLATFORMS. It has been superseded by other browsers including NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR and INTERNET EXPLORER, both of which can trace their ancestry back to Mosaic.
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DARREL INCE. "Mosaic." A Dictionary of the Internet. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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Mosaic

Computer Sciences | 2002 | Copyright

MOSAIC

Mosaic was the first popular graphical World Wide Web browser. It was released on the Internet in early 1993 by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Mosaic is distinguished from other early web browsers by its ease of use and the addition of inline image to web documents.
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mosaic

A Dictionary of Biology | 2004 | Copyright

mosaic
1. An organism made up of cells that have different genotypes but have developed from the same zygote. See also chimaera; gynandromorph.

2. A viral disease in plants that causes yellow patches to develop on the leaves, giving these a variegated appearance (see variegation). An example is tobacco mosaic, caused by tobacco mosaic virus.
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mosaic

A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture | 2000 | | Copyright

mosaic. Patterned surface on floors, vaults, walls, etc., consisting of regular squares (tesserae) of glass, stone, pottery, marble, etc., embedded in a cement or plaster matrix.

Bibliography

Anthony (1968);
Portoghesi (1986);
Jane Turner (1996)
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JAMES STEVENS CURL. "mosaic." A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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mosaic

A Dictionary of Ecology | 2004 | | Copyright

mosaic A general term for a virus disease of plants in which the symptoms include the appearance of angular areas of yellow colour on the leaves, forming a mosaic pattern.
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MICHAEL ALLABY. "mosaic." A Dictionary of Ecology. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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mosaic

A Dictionary of Plant Sciences | 1998 | | Copyright

mosaic A general term for a virus disease of plants in which the symptoms include the appearance of angular areas of yellow colour on the leaves, forming a mosaic pattern.
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mosaic

The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military | 2001 | Copyright

mosaic n. an assembly of overlapping photographs that have been matched to form a continuous photographic representation of a portion of the surface of the earth.
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Mosaic

A Dictionary of Computing | 2004 | | Copyright

Mosaic A utility that allows a user at a networked workstation to access information on the World Wide Web. See also Cello.
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Mosaic

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology | 1996 | | Copyright

Mosaic pert. to Moses. XVII. — F. mosaïque or modL. Mōsāicus, f. Mōsēs; see -IC.
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T. F. HOAD. "Mosaic." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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mosaic

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology | 1996 | | Copyright

mosaic XVI. — F. mosaïque — It. † mosaico, musaico — medL. mōsaicus, mūsaicus, obscurely f. late Gr. mouseîon, mousíon mosaic work (cf. MUSEUM).
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Mosaic

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | 2009 | Copyright

Mo·sa·ic / mōˈzā-ik/ • adj. of or associated with Moses.

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mosaic

Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes | 2007 | Copyright

mosaic •artic, brick, chick, click, crick, dick, flick, hand-pick, hic, hick, kick, lick, mick, miskick, nick, pic, pick, prick, quick, rick, shtick, sic, sick, slick, snick, spic, stick, thick, tic, tick, trick, Vic, wick •alcaic, algebraic, Aramaic, archaic, choleraic, Cyrenaic, deltaic, formulaic, Hebraic, Judaic, Mishnaic, Mithraic, mosaic, Pharisaic, prosaic, Ptolemaic, Romaic, spondaic, stanzaic, trochaic •logorrhoeic (US logorrheic), mythopoeic, onomatopoeic •echoic, heroic, Mesozoic, Palaeozoic (US Paleozoic), Stoic •Bewick •disyllabic, monosyllabic, polysyllabic, syllabic •choriambic, dithyrambic, iambic •alembic •amoebic (US amebic) •aerobic, agoraphobic, claustrophobic, homophobic, hydrophobic, phobic, technophobic, xenophobic •cherubic, cubic, pubic •Arabic, Mozarabic •acerbic • apparatchik • dabchick •peachick

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