Ceraton Mosaic tesserae

Creat your own history mosaic

As the Greek term’s origin shows, the art of mosaic is a gift of the nine divine “musae” or muses. Mosaics decorated ceilings, floors and walls and were often filled with symbolic, religious and mythological imagery. The artists were called mosaicists. They made their beautiful designs from stones of approximately one to two centimeters, sometimes the tesserae were even smaller. These mosaics were mostly made of porcelain, glazed porcelain, or cast glass. Only very rarely did the artists use precious or semi-precious material, the design itself was the precious product. It is not exactly clear, from when this craftship originally began. Yet already in ancient Greece, we find the most wonderful mosaics. Figural scenes were made from naturally coloured stones, often framed by geometrical patterns in the floor mortar.

Popularity of Mosaics

Mosaics became the fashion of the days in antiquity. From the 5th century B.C. onwards, modeled and carved coloured stones were used for mosaics and the technique spread throughout the Mediterranean. Still today we find in situ largely intact and fascinating mosaics of the highest quality. The Romans perfected the art of mosaic creation, so that works of art were produced such as the famous Alexander mosaic from Pompeii, which alone consists of more than four million stone pieces. It was the work not of one artist, but of an entire workshop of artists.

The art of the mosaic

Mosaic designs followed the fashions of their days in style and appearance. At times they were reduced to black and white mosaics, then we have the most stunning coloured mosaics that can hardly be distinguished from paintings. And sometimes, mosaics were no longer confined to surfaces. Also vaults, columns, pilasters, arches and other architectural elements and even furniture and house hold goods were decorated with decorative stones. The center of mosaic development in the Roman Empire became Ravenna during the 3rd century A.D. Here, glass mosaic became popular. The art of mosaics had lasted until the 13th century when it diminished in popularity and was slowly replaced by mural paintings, while mosaics became confined to floors. Yet, mosaics had a come back during the 20th century, when it was re-established as an important branch of art and decoration. Even today colourful stone terraces, tables, house walls and ponds are embellished with mosaics.