After the early fourth century, Christians began decorating churches with mosaics. This art that was so crucial for the Greeks and Romans was continued in early Christian times, but only in the imperial portraits, arches, and columns erected by the emperors in Constantinople. However, early Christian artists had another and more durable alternative, the medium of mosaic, which the Romans had used for floors, fountains, and pools. The Romans generally used colored stones for their mosaics, which was good for a resistant floor covering but had limitations of color. The early Christians used glass which opened up a large selection of color. They used gold lavishly, not only for golden objects but also for light and illuminated surfaces. Entire backgrounds of Byzantine icons and early Italian paintings.

Little cubes of glass, were pressed into a soft plaster, laid a section at a time over a planned drawing on the walls surface. The glass was never leveled off, so that each one presented a slightly different surface to the light; this way the observer would see a constantly changing sparkle across the surface. The technique of gold glass- which was the baking of gold leaf inside the glass cubes- was not exact, so that the gold mosaic background would have a shimmering appearance instead of the modern imitations.

One of the earliest of Christian mosaics was the dome of Hagios Georgios, in Salonika in northeastern Greece. An imitation of architecture form the late Roman stages is an architecture of two stories which are made up of interlocking columns, arches, broken pediments, and niches. The architecture, like the background, is made of gold glass, but added in were brown glass pieces that were used to show a shadow. Shades of blue were used for curtains and detail on the arches and niches. Then on the latter there were three blue-green peacocks, which symbolized eternal life.

A series of mosaics from imperial grandeur survives in the Roman Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, dating from about 432-440. Instead on the architectural framework, which Romans used on wall paintings that tied the images to the structure of the room, the triumphal arch is made of a mosaic. As a lot of the Early Christian and early Byzantine interiors show, this practice has the effect of fading out of the architecture so that it is a pictorial imagination.

The finest and best preserved ensemble of the fifth-century mosaics is the one that decorates the interior of the tiny mausoleum built at Ravenna, on the Adriatic Coast of northern Italy, by the empress Galla Placidia about 425-426 for members of her family. The simple brick exterior of the mausoleum, shows nothing of the treasure hidden inside. The walls are hidden in smooth slabs of soft gray veined marble. The barrel vaults, lunettes, and the walls of central lantern almost are invisible under the continuous mosaic.

Mosaics are a part of Byzantine art which was developed in the Eastern Roman Empire from about the 5th to the mid-15th century. This form of art became the link between the classical art for Greece and Rome and the later art of Western Europe. Byzantine art combined the naturalism of Classical Art with the abstract, decorative quality of Oriental art.

There is really no dividing line between Early Christian and Byzantine art. The early, formative years, form the establishment of Constantinople as capital in 330 until about 500, are called the Proto-Byzantine period. During the eight century and part of the ninth a dispute known as the Iconoclastic controversy argued over the worship of sacred images, such sculptures and paintings were destroyed. At the end of iconoclasm in 843 the portrayal of sacred persons was again encouraged.

The Second Golden Age of Byzantine Art, lasting from about the 9th to the 12th century, brought realism to imperial court art and a mysticism to religious art. The final brilliant artistic period occurred during the reign of the Palaeologi emperors from the 13th to the mid-15th century; it is known as the Byzantine Renaissance. Used then were more emotional expressions and more naturalism appeared in the religious art of this last period.

Byzantine craftsmen brought the art of mosaic to new heights. Colored glass cubes and gold grounds were used to create an effect of shimmering light and color. Mosaics decorated the walls and ceilings of churches to glorify God and the emperor. Among the best mosaics of the First Golden Age are those at San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy.

In the Second Golden Age a rigid arrangement of Christian subjects developed in church decorations. The central dome was reserved for the Pantocrator, Jesus as ruler of all, Illuminated manuscripts often would resemble mosaics as many were painted on gold or blue backgrounds. Small panel paintings called icons, often pictured the Virgin and Child in a highly decorative, formal setting.

During the Renaissance, the use of mosaics declined, painted murals took over. Some masterpieces of mosaic were still however created. Among them are the walls and ceilings of Capella Palatina in Palermo, Italy; San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy; and Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey. In the 20th century, a new interest of mosaics has risen. The large, smooth walls of modern architecture will always show themselves in their mosaic decoration.


–Referenced from the New Standard Encyclopedia