Mosaic Art Mosaic is a kind of art made by laying down small pieces of different colored material to form pictures or patterns. Mosaics have been around for more than 4,000 years! Early mosaics were pebble sidewalks, using different colored stones to create patterns. Later, the Greeks used the pebble technique as an art form, with geometric patterns and detailed scenes of people and animals. This lion was made around 300 BC (more than 2,000 years ago). What different color pebbles are used here?

Roman Mosaics By 200 BC, specially made pieces called "tesserae" (TES uh ree) were used to give extra detail and color to mosaics. Using small, even tiny, tesserae meant that mosaics could imitate, or look like, paintings. This mosaic is of the Roman goddess Venus. Does it look like a painting?

Roman Mosaics Here is a close-up of Venus. Which colors did the artist choose to create the eyes? Look how the artist uses black tiles to mark parts of the face. Which parts of the face are marked by the black tiles?

Roman Mosaics This is a mosaic of a seahorse. Notice how white tesserae are used to show the horse’s details. Do you see its sea-monster tail? Floor mosaics were mostly made of marble and stone. Why do you think mosaic pieces for floors were not made of glass?

Byzantine Mosaics Around the year 400 AD in Byzantium (now Turkey), mosaics took on new characteristics. These mosaics had Eastern influences in style and used special glass tesserae called smalti (SMALL-tee), made in northern Italy. Smalti were made from thick sheets of colored glass. They had a rough surface and contained tiny air bubbles. They were sometimes made with reflective silver or gold leaf. Which color is used here?

Islamic Mosaics Ancient Islamic mosaics were made of stone, glass, and ceramic. While Byzantine mosaics are “figurative” (meaning, about figures, like people), Islamic mosaics are mainly geometric and mathematical (patterns and designs). In Arabic countries, a distinctive decorative style called zillij (ZIL lige) uses specially made ceramic shapes that fit together perfectly to cover a surface.

Zillij Style Mosaics Here is an example of zillij mosaics. This is a fountain covered by mosaics.

Zillij Style Mosaics Here is a close-up of the zillij style fountain. Do you see how the tiles are certain shapes? What different shapes are used here?

Modern Mosaics Between 1938 and 1964, a man named Raymonde Isidore decorated his whole house using mosaics. The house is southwest of Paris, France and is called La Maison Picassiette. Isidore’s nickname "Picassiette" comes from a French expression meaning a "scrounger." Isidore used broken crockery, painting, and sculpture in his mosaics. Why do you think “scrounger” was a good nickname?

La Maison Picassiette All the furniture in Isidore’s house is covered with mosaics. Even the table, chairs, footstool, and bed are covered with mosaics! Can you imagine what life was like in this small house where 3 little children lived? This mosaic activity must have caused a mess of dust and broken crockery....and where did they sleep while the cement was drying on the bed?

La Maison Picassiette Here is the stove, which actually worked! Isidore never considered himself to be an artist. His real job was sweeping graveyards! He devoted 30 years, 29,000 hours, and 15 tons of crockery to this project. Isidore probably never would have imagined that his house, La Maison Picassiette, would attract over 30,000 visitors each year!

Modern Mosaics There are lots of mosaics around today. This mosaic of dancing women is by an artist named Irina Charny. Some people use “found objects” (like buttons, toy figures) to make mosaics. Mosaic collages of personal objects with connections to everyday life are also sometimes called "memoryware."

Mosaics in Austin Did you know there are some mosaics right here in Austin? Here’s a very famous one that is on the floor in the state capitol. When you look at it from above, you can’t see the individual mosaic tiles. It looks like a whole picture instead! This mosaic is made of terrazzo [Tuh RATS so]. Terrazzo is mosaic flooring made by embedding small pieces of marble or granite in mortar (or concrete) and then polishing it until it is bright and shiny. The seals on the floor trace Texas history by representing the six flags that have flown over the state.

Mosaic Art Response What kind of mosaic can you make? Will you cut or tear paper for your mosaic or use some other kind of materials? Will you do just a design or make a picture?