A Brief History of Mosaics

A mosaic is a piece of art or image made from the gathering of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. Most mosaics are made of small, flat, roughly square, pieces of stone or glass of different colors, known as tesserae.

These mosaics are often used in decorative art or as interior decoration. Mosaics have a long history, starting in Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BC. Mosaics with patterns and pictures became widespread in classic times, both in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Early Christians basilicas from the 4th century to just before the Renaissance decorated walls and ceilings with mosaics. Mosaics were also widely used on religious buildings and palaces in early Islamic art. There are two main methods of making mosaics: the direct method and the indirect method. The direct method of mosaic construction involves directly placing (gluing) the individual tesserae onto the supporting surface. This method is well suited to surfaces that have a three-dimensional quality. The indirect method of applying tesserae are placed face-down to a backing panel insuring that the front surfaces of the mosaic tiles and mosaic pieces are flat and in the same place on the front, even when using tiles and pieces of different thicknesses. A three-dimensional mosaic starts by first sculpturing a bas-relief and using the direct method to finish the mosaic piece.