XX

NOTES ON THE

green are also far from rare. These pieces are often of very singular shapes, andit will he frequently seen that when placed together in pairs they form somethinglike the petals of a flower (see No. 106). A few specimens, found at Pompeii orHerculaneum and preserved in the Museum at Naples, produce the kind of patternsthus displayed; some are star-like, others rosettes, and each one is placed in thecentre of an octagonal piece of lavender-coloured opaque glass. One of the starsis made of eight pieces of so-called mosaic glass, all cut from the same rod, whichindicates that this kind of glass was less costly than we might he inclined to sup-pose. As, however, these wall pieces were generally cut with a wheel, so as to fitexactly, the Romans must have spent upon these decorations an amount which tous, accustomed to ornament our walls with paper or plaster, would appear surprising.Such decorations are, however, alluded to hy ancient authors in terms denotingthat they were considered as marks of great luxury; as Vopiscus (in vita Firmi,cap. 3) tells us of Firmus, “ De hujus divitiis multa dicuntur, nam et vitreisquadraturis, hitumine aliisque medicamentis insertis, donirnn induxisse perhihetur.”Seneca (Ep. 86) contrasts the vaults of the hath chambers of his own day coveredwith glass,* with the rude simplicity which marked the times of the Scipios.

Another variety of this system of decorating walls, in which higher artisticpowers were called into use, was that in which not merely patterns, hut subjectscontaining forms both of animals and men, were represented hy means of colouredmarbles and glass; very few examples of this description of work have come down tous; hy far the most important formed part of the decorations of the basilica Siciniana,afterwards the church of S. Andrea in Catabarbara, and now destroyed. Ciampini(Vet. Mon. vol. i., pi. 21—24) has represented the building and several portionsof the decorations as they existed in his time; and Yon Minutoli (pi. 4) has given acoloured engraving of a fragment, which was then preserved in the Palazzo Albaniat Rome. This is about 4 ft. 4 in. (Rhenish measure) high, by about 4 ft. wide;in the upper part the story of Hylas seized by the water nymphs is depicted, whilethe lower is occupied by a piece of drapery represented as if suspended to thewall. The upper part is chiefly composed of pieces of variously coloured marbles,some portions only being of blue and green glass.; in the lower part glass ismore freely used. The piece of drapery has a broad border on which are smallfigures of Egyptian deities and priests; these would seem to be entirely composedof glass, and that representing the garments is of the kind known as mosaic.

In tesselated work (opus tessellatum), or what we usually term mosaic, glasswas more and more used as the desire for splendour increased; in early examples it isonly found employed for the parts requiring very vivid colours, the rest being stone,marble, and baked clay; but in the fourth and fifth centuries the mosaics whichdecorated the walls and roofs were wholly of glass. The use of tesserae with asurface of gold does not appear to be earlier than the end of the fourth century.

There can be no doubt that glass was used by the Romans in windows, though

* “ Yitro absconditur camera.”