Art-Jottings In Art-Studios.*

in may be either portions of substances naturally produced , such as shell or stone , or it may consist of glass specially prepared for the purpose : in either case it is subdivided into extremely minute pieces called " smalts , " of ivhich , before the entire picture is set , small square portions of it are put together first and are called " tessera .. " Of modern instances of this beautiful art we might mention a superb specimen produced by Russian artists at the Russian Imperial Glass Factory , and exhibited at the International

Exhibition of 1872 : this work has probably never been surpassed . In England , Minton , of Stoke-on-Trent , and Maw , of Broseley , make some extremely beautif id specimens of Mosaic work ; their tiles have reached such a high pitch of perfection that they need no longer be confined to the floor , but can be used most effectively either alone or in combination to enrich wall and cornice decoration . When all is said ancl clone , however , Italy seems the most congenial home of the art , it having been reintroduced there about

1250 ( A . D . ) by Andrea Tali , who had learned it of some Greek artists who were occupied in decorating St . Mark ' s at Venice . There it has been brought to a most perfect state of finish , works of extreme minuteness being successfully executed in it by Italian artists . The manufacture of the little opaque " smalts " for making up the cubes or " tesserto"is a very important one , belonging to the Papal Government , ancl being carried on in the Vatican , where it is said that no less than 25 , 000 shades of colour are

produced . There is in Italy another school of Mosaic Work—the Florentine . In this , the " smalts "—unlike the glass productions of the Roman School—are entirely formed from pieces of stone and shell . The scope of its works is necessarily more limited , being almost entirely confined to floral and arabesque designs . If we enquire into the oriinal home of the artive meet with no little difficulty :

g , we find , however , that under the Byzantine Empire it was extensively used as a wall decoration in the churches . Amongst the Romans , again , it was much practised , being held in especial esteem for ornamental pavements , specimens of ivhich are almost sure to be found whenever modern research unearths the remaina of the long buried Roman villa .

One of the best of our modern Encyclopedias declares of this art , " that its origin and the derivation of its name are alike unknown . " Not so , however , Bros . Woodford and Mackey , in their Cyclopedia and Lexicon respectively of Freemasonry , to which system the words " Mosaic" and " Tesselated" are the reverse of strange . Bro . Woodford says that " Mosaic" is derived from the " musivum opus" of the Romans , which , he remarks , was doubtless Mosaic or tesselated work , " opus concinne tesselatum

varieque picturatum ; " this-view is much strengthened when ive see that Dr . Hyde Clarice gives ( in English ) " musaic"as the alternative form of " mosaic . " This " musivum , " . Bro . Woodford considers , is further derived from the Greek " mouseion , " because of the decoration of the " mouseion " ( museum)—a place consecrated to the muses and set apart for study or learned conversation . "Lithrostoton , " the Greek equivalent for the Roman " musivum " was a Mosaic or tesselated

opus , pavement , ancl Mackey refers to " the Pavement" ( Hebrew " Gabbatha " ) . Mackey ( in a footnote ) says that " The term ' Mosaic' is supposed to have been derived from the fact that Moses thus constructed the floor of the Tabernacle . " We should suppose that Bro . Woodford would a fortiori oppose this notion , inasmuch as he says that " there ivas certainly none in the first Temple , ancl it is not clear that there was any in the second—though there may have been when Herod restored it and re-beautified it . "

Our own idea upon this point would be that if any such " pavement" existed in the Tabernacle , where everything was portable , it must have been merely the representation of Mosaic in some easily-rolled-up stuff akin to that in frequent use in our Lodges at the present clay , _ With the " Mosaic Pavement" is often connected the " Tesselated Border , " —we think wrongly , for we regard the latter title as a misnomer , or , at least , likely to mislead . J-t is ^ true that it may be named " Tesselated , " from its presenting an appearance of inlay ing , but we contend that this " indentation " aloes not really represent inlaid or Mosaic " work , but , instead , the indents ivhich would be caused by a fringe of lengths