Mosaic is not a mere designer accessory which relates purely to twentieth-century style. Mosaic is the oldest, most durable and most functional art form, with colours that never fade, and materials which withstand the sun, rain, frost or even centuries of burial. Carlo Bertelli states in his famous book Mosaics, “mosaic art flows through history like a great river through a porous desert, disappearing and re-appearing again”.

Colours in early mosaics tended to be of natural stone - soft greens, blue, ochre, white, terracotta and black, but gradually highlights of glass were added. A dazzling kaleidoscope of colour was introduced with glass smalti by the Byzantine masters, who found that by angling smalti in the mortar, they could create brilliant plays of light on the surface patterns.

The ancients also believed that glancing lights and shards of mirror contained a ‘flash of spirit’. This is why outdoor mosaics look so lively in the rain, gleaming through the wet foliage.

At heart we are, perhaps, all mosaicists, for who can resist, whilst doodling, the temptation to colour in the numeral ‘zero’ or the letter ‘O’, or to fit the last piece of a jigsaw, or make patterns with loose buttons or sweets.

The ancient art of mosaic derives from just such a basic desire for order and ornamentation. Five thousand years ago, the Sumerians credited mural patterns by driving coloured clay cones into walls, and by the third century, B.C., the Greeks were constructing representational mosaics out of variously coloured uncut pebbles. Since these early times, man has used ‘bits’ of stone , ceramic, glass, shell, and more recently plastic, as well as other more unusual materials to create mosaics for private and public buildings, spaces and other purposes. The variety of possible applications is endless, including interior and exterior schemes, furniture, jewellery and an enormous range of decorative objects.

The permanence of the materials has meant that much mosaic has survived in good condition, including many exceptional Roman works. Inspired by Hellenic examples, the Romans exploited the functional and decorative qualities of the medium to the full, using it for hardwearing pavemental and intricate mural decoration. Mosaics have been found across the the entire area of the Roman Empire exhibiting an enormous range of genres and styles, from conventionalised compositions depicting the gods to closely observed scenes of everyday life. These included simple monochrome ’silhouette’ images, detailed studies of animals and an inexhaustible repertoire of abstract border and infill designs.

During the reign of Emperor Justin (AD 518-527), Roman, Barbarian and eastern influences contributed to the fruition of the Byzantine style. Christian pictorial conventions were becoming well established, with a heiracarchy of images evolving in response to the encouragement of patronages. Mosaic fast became a primary medium for the decoration of Christian churches, a natural extension of the Byzantine practice of cladding walls with a decorative marble skin.

The mosaics of the church of San Vitale in Ravenna, the last Imperial capital of Italy, consummately illustrate the accomplishments of the period - unfettered use of vibrant colour (indicating the introduction of gold smalti) and the combing of materials - and the creation of an undulating surface exploiting reflections.

The Byzantine style of the fifth and sixth century Ravenna was to be sustained and developed in Venice and to reach its’ ultimate expression in Constantinople, the centre of Orthodox Christianity, between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Initially, the Renaissance saw a decline in the practice of mosaic, but by the mid-fifteenth century, large quantities of smalti were being produced in Murano, and new works were created, influenced by by contemporary developments in painting.

A fascinating dialogue ensued between painting and mosaic, each medium imitating the other and striving to create illusionistic effects. Panels wer worked with tesserae so fine as to have a seemingly smooth texture and church interiors were frequently painted in imitation of gold mosaic.

It was the late sixteenth century that Renaissance mosaic reached its’ apogee in the enormous works for St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, their compositions suffused with painterly qualities which made Ghirlandaio (as reported by Vasari) remark that mosaic was ‘La vera pittura per l’erternita‘ (the true way of painting for eternity).

By the eighteenth century, Rome was firmly established as the great centre for mosaic, a studio having been set up within the Vatican, the primary aim of which was to produce further monumental works for St. Peter’s. At the same time as these massive panels were being executed, however, there also existed in Rome a vogue for miniature mosaic using tesserae barely visible to the naked eye.

The eclectic historicism of the nineteenth century fuelled a revival of arts and crafts of all kinds, including mosaic, which became increasingly widely practised, with dedicated schools springing up to serve large public commissions (including St. Paul’s Cathedral in London and Paris Opera). The famous workshop of Antonio Salviati in Murano was a particular success, producing fine reproduction of historic mosaics for worldwide export.

At the turn of the century, however, the burgeoning Art Nouveau movement began to loosen the ties which had bound mosaic to being an imitative, representational language, allowing the introduction of pure pattern, abstracted and stylised forms. Relatively ordinary buildings in major cities, most notably Paris, Barcelona and Prague, developed a ‘rash’ of mosaic decoration , and Barcelona in particular was distinguished by the exuberant and idiosyncratic creations of the architect Antonion Gaudi. His influence was to forge a path towards complete freedom of expression in mosaic, encouraging such artists as Klimt, Chagall and Kokoschka to design for this most enduring of media.