The mosaic emanated from the need of replacement of costly marble flooring, with other material, durable but also luxurious. It was devised by the Mediterranean population and is known in ancient Greece from the 5th b.c. century.

In the beginning, crude gravels ware used , white or blacks, that slowly -slowly were enriched with colours, while shortly they advance also in the manufacture of tessera, which were made either by stone, that were broken away technically from items of marbles or other natural rocks, or techniques, from glass or seldom with semi-valuable stones.

The mosaics of Olynthos, Pergamon, Delos, the Pompia etc are exceptional samples of acne of mosaic in the antiquity.

In the Romanic period the use of mosaic is almost generalised in the manufacture of the floorings. Decorative subjects, mythological scenes, as well as corresponding from the daily life, cover the floorings of the public and private buildings.

In the first period of Christianity the subjects of the mosaic are the same, but they now they have different symbolism.

As we mentioned, tessera are made with small natural stones. The tessera are square or rectangle, with area 1 or 2 cm or even smaller for the naked parts, especially the face. For the floor, they first manufactured a mesh of crossed walls in the ground in order not to have subsidence. Above them, they placed a surface of broken standing tiles, and above that a thick and powerful mortar, in which the mosaic craftsman put the tessera.

For an wall in mosaic, they used for preparation three layers.

The first layer was thick mortar with admixture other materials that were placed in the wall and were fixed with flat-headed nails while the surface was engraved with trowel. In this was placed later a new layer of thinner mortar and finally a third, thin grain, in which the mosaic craftsman put the tessera.

The craftsmen that manufactured the mosaic were named "psifodetes"(mosaic craftsman) from the Greek signs and tesselarius from Latin.

The Oldest mosaic that we know is Gnosis, from the mosaic of Pella in the 4th b.c. century. From the newer seasons are rescued many names of mosaic craftsmen. From the signs of mosaics we know the collaboration of mosaic craftsman and painters in the process of the construction, not of course in all the produced work, but probably in the most important of these. Although the art of mosaic required big ability in the preparation, the choice and the placement of mosaic, the profession of mosaic craftsman was not included between the well paid specialities of craftsmen.

With the mosaics we can decorate with the most impressive ways the walls, floorings, swimming-pools, exterior spaces etc.

In the mosaic pictures, the bas-relief in connection with the inalterable and naturalness of the soft colours constitute a trap for the eye of your visitor, where it might not resist in the temptation to approach and admire them. If its placement is combined with suitable lighting or in recess of the wall etc. the aesthetics of space reaches the perfect.

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LOUKAS PEINIRIS
MOSAIC CRAFTSMAN