Entwistle, Cris and James. Liz
Mosaics are perhaps the most outstanding examples of Byzantine art which survive, yet we know next to nothing about how they were made. Glass-making was a relatively sophisticated skill in the mediaeval world, yet no written documents survive from Byzantium about the methods used for making a mosaic or creating its tesserae, and we have no knowledge of the ways in which manufacturing patterns existed and changed over time, or, indeed, of where and exactly how tesserae were created. Only the mosaics themselves speak to their composition. Glass making and glass working were two distinct processes: did the differently coloured glass tesserae on one site all come from the same batch of raw glass? Where did that raw glass come from? The nature of the actual colours used in making mosaics changed over time: is this simply a question of changing aesthetics or are there also technical explanations for these alterations? In discussing questions like these, the volume explores issues around the technical production of glass and medieval artistic practices, whilst also opening up wider debates about the nature of trade and exchange within the Mediterranean during this period and into our understanding of political and social changes within the Mediterranean world. The volume cuts across art history, archaeology, chemistry, physics and Byzantine studies, bringing together a range of scholars from Europe and America interested in the chemical and physical analysis of Byzantine glass together with those concerned with the formal and cultural aspects of Byzantine mosaics in order to reappraise mosaics and mosaic making in this interdisciplinary context.
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