Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

beautiful in mosaic art has been produced by means of this ancient method, it seems natural enough that it should have the affection, and even veneration, of many mosaists. To abandon it is to break with the past, and artistic sentiment is conservative, but

"the old order changeth, yielding place to new," and there are many indications leading to the conclusion that, except with reference to small works in which the designer is interested as mosaist, this venerable method will not survive the stress of modern conditions, and that the existing wave of opinion in its favour will, after a few costly experiments, subside.

In expressing this opinion, I do not forget the important work recently executed in the choir of St. Paul's Cathedral, but in that case the work was carried out under all the conditions necessary for the successful application of the method; there was no want of money, no limitation as to time, and the mosaists were under the direct control of Sir William Richmord, who designed the cartoons. It would be quite out of place here to criticise the result, but it would be interesting to know the cost, from first to last, of each square foot of mosaic executed, including the fees paid to the distinguished artist who superintended the work.

I now come to the New Method. The Venetian mosaists having decided to abandon the application of the old method to the construction of decorative mosaics, adopted, developed, and, after many costly experiments, brought to perfection the method which has become associated with their name and which they have applied to nearly all the 'large decorative works executed by them during the past 30 years. This method, or process, was explained by the late Sir Austen Henry Layard in the following passage of a paper read by him at a meeting of the Royal Institute of British Architects :

"The necessity of working on the spot is now avoided by an ingenious process, which, however, is only applicable to decorative mosaic, and cannot be used when much delicacy of execution and extreme nicety in the gradation of tints are required. The workmen reverse the cartoon, and place the tesseræ with their proper faces downwards. The tesseræ are fastened with common paste to sheets of coarse brown paper, on which the cartoon is traced. When the work is finished it has only to be fixed with cement upon the wall destined to receive it, and the brown paper is then removed from the face of it. This process requires considerable skill and practice, especially when figures have to be executed, but is perfectly successful. Thus the decoration of any

number of square feet of surface can be forwarded from Venice to any part of the world-to America or to India-with safety and at little cost."

To go a little into detail: the studio should always be well lighted and well ventilated.

The workers are under the control of an artist who is also an experienced mosaist— indeed, his qualification for the post is that he possesses a large and varied experience in the practice of mosaic art.

The working mosaists are divided into grades or classes. The workers in the first grade, work on those parts of a mosaic which require the most careful treatment, such as the face, hands and feet of a figure; those in the second, grade, work on ornaments and drapery; those in the third grade have given to them the execution of simple backgrounds, and so en— ́. each man being given that work which he is best fitted to perform.

When a cartoon is brought into the studio it is traced and reversed on coarse brown paper. This reversed tracing is then cut up into pieces of irregular shape, and these pieces are distributed among the various grades of workers. The cartoon is then hung up so that it may be seen by all, and the workers, being comfortably seated at their desks with a small anvil, a small hammer, some paste and the enamels they will require by their side, the work begins. Each worker having carefully noted the colours and the size and shape of the tesseræ required for his part of the cartoon, proceeds to cut his enamels accordingly, and to place them with their proper faces downwards on to the plain tracing before him, and to attach them thereto with common paste.

With the exception of the tesseræ used for metal backgrounds (to which I shall refer later on), each tessera is the same in colour

66

throughout, and all the tesseræ are of equal thickness, and are evenly shaped from top to bottom. When, therefore, they are placed on the paper face downwards," there remains under the eye of the worker the exact counterpart of the work he has executed-the design being carried right through the tessera-and he is thus able to judge of the effect of his work, and to make any necessary alterations or corrections as it proceeds.

Metal backgrounds sometimes require a slightly different treatment. Owing to the construction of "metal cakes," the metal is only visible from the front or face of the mosaic. All that the worker can see when he has placed the metal tessera face downwards on the paper is the glass by which the metal is backed. In

the case of a plain gold or silver background, no modification of the method is necessary, as the worker, by long experience, knows exactly the effect which is being produced on the face of the mosaic. When, however, a background is to be composed of various shades of gold or gold and silver, a treatment requiring the exercise of great skill and judgment, it is constructed face upwards, so that the workers may see the effect of each FIG. 2.

illustration, which shows us the effect of the "right" side of the same mosaic.

In a very interesting paper contributed by Mr. Clement Heaton to the Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, he states that he was told at Venice it was impossible to do figure work without grinding. I do not know from whom he obtained his information, but I can assure him that not one single tessera in this mosaic has touched the grindstone. FIG. 3.

[graphic]

tessera as it is laid; then paper is pasted over it, and it is ready to be packed.

On the screen I give an illustration-taken from a photograph-of the "wrong" side of a mosaic executed by this method. It will be of interest to those critics who have condemned the process on the ground that the worker cannot see the effect of his work as it proceeds, and it may be of some interest to others as being the first illustration of the "wrong" side of a mosaic which has ever been published. The interest will be enhanced by the following

The artist who controls the studio is in constant touch with all the workers, and in the course of his frequent visits to each one, advises or corrects as he watches the progress of the work. It is he who divides the cartoon and distributes the pieces among the workmen; and in this connection it may be observed that sometimes a mosaic is required to be executed by a certain date much within the ordinary limit of time given to a work of the kind. It is impossible to hurry the workers, for that would be detrimental to the quality of the

mosaic. The cartoon is therefore divided into smaller pieces than usual, and a larger number of workers are employed on the work; and by this means, without hurry or injury, the mosaic is executed within the time allowed. Under the old method an expeditious treatment is not possible.

It may seem at first sight as though the employment of many workers on one design would produce inequalities in the workmanship which would mar the harmony of the work; but it must be borne in mind that the superin

some slight defect in the enamel, so slight as to be unobservable to the worker when placing the tesseræ. Again, enamels which in one light appear to match exactly the colours of the cartoon, when seen in another light produce a different effect. Now, here again we have an advantage over the older method, for the mosaic can be viewed at any angle of light while the work is in progress and before the tesseræ are placed on the wall; and any defective parts can he removed with ease and at little cost

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed]

tending artist controls the whole work and imposes his interpretation of the cartoon on all the workers. The slight variations in style, which he would permit would only tend to add an interest to the mosaic without in any way disturbing the harmonious blending of its parts.

Practical mosaists know well how difficult it is to avoid the intrusion of bits of enamel, of the same colour and possibly taken from the same cake, which, when seen in a particular light or at a certain distance convey one tint, but in another light or at another distance convey a different tint; this may be due to

When all the tracings forming the cartoon have been covered with enamel they are collected and placed in a frame, so that the whole design now translated into glass, comes before the artist and workers and is again critically examined in various lights. In this final examination the artist has the assistance of all those who have been engaged on the work, an assistance which is of great value to him, for the eyes of the workers, trained by long experience in the practice of their art, are able to detect the least variations in colour, and the chances of a defective tessera escaping their notice are few indeed. When, therefore,

they and the artist agree that the colours of the mosaic correctly interpret the colours of the cartoon, and fulfil the conditions (if any) imposed by the designer, it is passed, packed, and sent to its destination ready to be fixed.

In recent times there has been in certain quarters some carping at this method; but the only important objections and important only by reason of their wide-spread acceptanceare two (1.) That by this method the workmen are working in the dark, so to speak; cannot see what they are doing, and are unable therefore, to correct their work as it proceeds. (2.) That because the tessera are placed face downwards on to paper resting on a flat surface, the surface of the mosaic must necessarily be flat.

The first objection has been disposed of in the description of the process already given, and there remains nothing further to be added.

As regards the second objection, it is difficult to understand how the fallacy came to be propagated and accepted by many as an article of faith. Even the latest writer on mosaics, Mr. Lys Baldry, in his charming book on "Mural Decorations," repeats it and condemns the method on that ground. Some months ago the Royal Institute of British Architects held a meeting to hear a paper read on the practice of pictorial mosaics, and the particular objection under consideration was re-stated, with considerable assurance, by the reader of the paper. Fortunately there' was present at the meeting the eminent artist, Mr. Walter Crane, whose wide experience in every branch of decorative art had brought him into contact with mosaics executed by this method. He took exception to the statement, though seeming somewhat mystified by the assertion of his friends which contradicted his own experience. Referring to certain mosaics which had been executed from his cartoons by this method, he said::

"He was very much astonished at the facility with which his designs were reproduced. The tessera were given with the utmost exactitude, and the matching of the colours, allowing for difference in translation of the dead colour of the cartoon into the brilliant colours of the glass mosaic, was simply extraordinary; and even when designs were worked on this method he believed they had some method of giving a little push to the tessera, in parts, to get more variation of facet in the gold of the background."

18th November, 1901, proceedings reported in Journal of the Institute.

Mr. Walter Crane was right. The fact is the placing of the tesseræ face downwards on the paper, does not in any way affect the surface quality of the mosaic which is regulated at the time the tessera are being fixed upon the wall.

When the mosaic is brought to the wall which is destined to receive it, the wall is prepared with cement, and the pieces into which the mosaic has been divided are taken from their cases, and the work of fixing begins.

. If one fixer only is working on a panel, about four feet of mosaic can be placed on the wall at a time. The tesseræ are pressed into the cement, and after a few minutes the paper is damped off and the mosaic discovered. It is at this stage that the character of the surface is determined. There is no need for hurry while the manipulation of the tessera is proceeding, as the cement used does not set firm for some hours after the paper has been removed; and there is no fear of the tessera sagging, as they are laid from the bottom and not from the top as in the old method. If, therefore, the designer is also a practical mosaist, and wishes personally to undertake the work of fixing, this method affords him facilities for stamping the work, in its final stage, with his iudividuality by giving to the tessera with his own hands that "little push" to which reference has already been made.

To facilitate fixing in localities where skilled fixers are not to be met with, mosaics intended to cover flat surfaces are sometimes set in cement before they leave the studio. The process is as follows:-A bed of cement about half-an-inch thick is laid upon a smooth wooden surface and before the cement has set an iron frame of ingenious construction (the invention of a Venetian) is pressed into it. This is then covered with an upper layer of cement prepared to receive the tessera which are placed upon it in the same manner as, by this method, they are placed upon the wall. When the work is completed its appearance is that of a slab of marble, rimmed with iron and covered on one side with mosaics. It can then be placed in position by any competent mason, and for that reason this special construction is suitable for mosaics intended for India or the Colonies. The colossal figure of Minerva in the Library of Congress at Washington was so constructed, and the result is perfectly satisfactory. Large panels are divided into sections, to facilitate packing, and these sections (like the sections into which the cartoons are divided) are irregular in shape.

[merged small][graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][ocr errors]
« ElőzőTovább »