Question 1

How were people able to walk on mosaic floors without cutting their feet on the corners of the tesserae?

Accepted Answer

In places such as bathhouses, the floors would have been smoothed by water and possibly by servants to prevent cuts. In many other places they would have worn shoes.

Question 2

Is it possible to purchase mosaic supplies at arts and craft stores?

Accepted Answer

Yes and no, Some crafts stores will sell kits for kids that contain materials for making a mosaic, but many individuals that make mosaics for a living will go to quarries or through catalogs to get the right color of stone needed and get the cement from hardware stores.

Question 3

What does "Terracotta" literally mean? And what materials were traditionally used for reds and yellows that terracotta was an alternative for? [1:34]

Accepted Answer

'Terra' is land or earth, and 'cotta' means cooked, in Italian. Besides firing tesserae of various colours, one could use rocks of a similar size and colour, depending on what's available near the structure.

Question 4

what type of material were the ancient Greece's sandals, made out of?

Accepted Answer

Usually they were made of a piece of leather or wood for the sole, and felt, linen, or leather for the straps. They went from the big toe (like a flip-flop) around the heel and over the foot a few times to keep the sandal on.

Question 5

Around 2:00, the speaker mentions that today's artisans use mosaic making methods very similar to what was used in the times of the ancient Byzantine. What are some main differences between today's mosaic making methods and that of the Byzantine era?

Accepted Answer

Modern mosaic making involves the use of machinery such as glass cutters, tile nippers, table saws etc. for 'cutting' of the mosaic tiles, while in earlier times they were formed by breaking along fractures to obtain the required shape, using hammers, much like shown here in the video (artists still prefer the hammer method because it is easier to obtain the desired shape and size that way). A greater variety of stones, glass and other materials are used to form the mosaic but the technique more or less remains the same.
"Mosaics today are far more versatile than their antique counterparts and somewhat more durable, but the process by which mosaics are created, and the time it takes to produce a mosaic has remained the same. Mosaic is still a labor intensive, time consuming art form that deserves special respect and appreciation." -http://www.lifeinitaly.com/art/mosaic-technique.asp

Question 6

Do museums focus one one particular type such as Terra cotta for the Getty and mosaic in Chicago?

Accepted Answer

Not usually. There are a fairly limited number of mosaics in the world and they are difficult to transport and display, so it may be that you only see one per museum. However, large museums, like the ones you mentioned are well equipped to take care of all types. That being said, terra cotta is a material that is used to make mosaics (and many other things) rather than being a separate thing from a mosaic. But mosaics made from different types of materials do have different conservation requirements.

Question 7

Do you think that the ease with which things can be made these days, has resulted in the death (or near death) of hand-crafted work such as this?  Do we lose art when we modernize?

Accepted Answer

To some extent, yes. Mosaic making requires skill, patience and a lot of time. Commercial artists now a days prefer quicker alternatives to produce similar effect but the final results may not always embody the taste/style of earlier times. Art is never lost, it only evolves.

Special topics in art history

Course: Special topics in art history > Unit 2

Ancient and Byzantine mosaic materials

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Video transcript