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| ANCIENT CHRONICLES |
THE
MAKING OF A MOSAICIST A historical fiction by Alexandria
Part 1 I can still remember the day I first went out with my father as his apprentice. I was 14 years old, and so proud at finally being able to learn a trade. Papa had a contract to repair an old mosaic in a church that was falling apart. "See this Alex", he said, shaking his head as we looked at the old mosaic. The tessarae were crumbling off the walls and were littering the floor. Papa picked up a piece of glass in his hand and showed it to me. The mortar on the back was totally dry, and the gold foil around the glass has almost totally worn away. "Who ever made this mosaic, used far too much ash in the fixative and not enough limestone and water. Its too dry. This mosaic would never have lasted very long." Papa explained how the fixative called pozzolana was made of volcanic ash, and limestone. When mixed together with water in the right proportions, it made a very strong cement. Papa stepped back to cast a critical eye over the whole mosaic. He explained how he was trying to find the pattern, the central piece that speaks to people. But he could not find anything. Either it had crumbled off, or more likely it was never there. Papa was not impressed with the original artist. But he had contracted to fix the mosaic so that it was as good as before. He would use this mosaic to show me the basics of all the skills of the mosaicists art but he never had his whole heart in it. I would not learn about the emotional heart of a mosaic until the next contract. Papa had always talked about the different skills he had had to learn as an apprentice. While I was growing up he had often stated rules such as... Never make cement on a frosty day. The moisture will cause the cement to expand and crack as it dries and the mosaic will become distorted. Always network, network, network. You never know when one of your contacts just might have access to the exact material you need. Mosaic is an art. You have to make it speak to or raise emotions in people. Otherwise it is not art. Its just colorful pieces of glass and stone on the wall or floor. To be a great mosaic artist, you have to be very good at many tasks.. Or you will only ever be mediocre. A mosaic artist has to be multiskilled in order to be a good mosaicist. He or she has to be a painter, (as in sketching the pattern) a sculptor, (as in cutting the pieces of marble, stone, glass ceramics and other materials to the right sizes, and finding the right color pieces as well) a cement maker, (as in making the right consistancy mortar or fixative) and finally a mosaicist (as in laying the right colored pieces in the right places on the pattern). The most common materials Papa used for mosaics were coloured glass, ceramic pieces, marble and semi-precious stones, such as lapis lazuli, onyx, turquoise and mother of pearl. All these pieces were collectively called tessarae. The most valuable materials he used in his mosaics were gold and silver beaten into thin layers of foil. Papa taught me how to wrap pieces of foil around cut glass cubes called smalti before embedding them in the cement. Papa also taught me how to make the pozzolana fixative, and how to calculate the correct proportions of water to make cement, how to lay the cement, how to cut the tessarae to different shapes and sizes, how to use the cutting and shaping tools and how to paint the cartoons used for the mosaic picture or pattern.
Part 2 When I told my father the news of my first commission, he was wild with excitement. "Alex, this is a day to celebrate." he said, opening a bottle of the best wine that was only ever opened on special occasions. Papa was so very proud of me, as it had been his idea and his encouragement that had led to my bidding for the contract in the first place. I have been apprenticed to my father since I was 14 years old. Following in the footsteps of my brothers, who had been apprenticed to other mosaicists. Father had been teaching my brothers and I, about mosaics since we could talk. My brothers had all received their first commissions before they were 20. So we all literally grew up on the job. I was now 24 and had had to prove myself twice as capable as any man in order to be taken seriously by the Mosaic Artists guild. Finally I had been granted entry to the guild at the age of 22, and now just two years later, I had my first commission to show for my efforts. All mosaic artists who intended to bid for public contracts were required to belong to the mosaic artists guild in order that a certain level of proficiency was maintained. Papa had once been a member of the guild, but was now no longer. He currently works doing mosaic commissions for private homes for which guild admission is not required So now I was finally a mosaic artist in my own right. Commissioned by Proconsul Justinian himself, to work on the walls of the new church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, located within the grounds of the Hormisdas Palace down by the Sea of Mamara. The sun was just about to rise as I quietly slipped out of the house to begin my first day working on my new job. Shortly after, I arrived at the church of St Sergius & St Bacchus, and was pleased to see that the plasterers were already there. This was a good sign. Also on the floor were the baskets of tessare and smalti I had arranged to be delivered. Right now the walls were bare wood. It was my job to co-ordinate with the plasterers so that they plastered just the part of the wall I would be doing that day. I would have to work fast, in order to prick out the design, and carefully place all the tessarae before the plaster hardened too much. I have found that, like my father, I preferred not to work with assistants, and since this was my first job, I was not yet experienced enough to have apprentices assigned to me. The
design of the walls had been left to my discretion but the understanding was that
the subject be the saints of the orthodox calendar. I decided to begin with a
large mosaic of the Saints Sergius & Bacchus over the altar at the front of
the church. Then the other saints would be shown down the sides of the church.
This would be a long and slow process, taking up the next 2 years of my life,
but if I did it right, I would be able to get bigger commissions later on.
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