The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-12
THE ARTS IN ITALY.
Mosaic Art Work for Women.

VENICE, April 1O.-Summoned to Venice on
business at the commencement of the month, |
paid a visit, usual, to the AnglO-ltalian Glass
and Mosaic Company, in Campo 5. Vic, on the
Grand Canal and this time came away with the
conviction that "A similar establishment in Ame-
rica might furnish easy, pleasant, and lucrative
work for hundreds of women who have neither
a turn for teaching nor taste for dOctOring, and
who have not yet found the other half, - who
would take and be taken for better, for worse
with whom to cast in their lot
On the books of the establishment saw or
ders for enamel MOSAIC from California and New
York, and demands for price.lists from Washing
proving thatnot only in the Old World, but in
the New, Ghirladanjo saying that mosaic is the
only painting for eternity" is being at length
practically appreciated On benches and on the
floors of the various studios of the establishment
40 or 80 men and lads were at work; some copy
ing in enamel Fra Bcato's angels for English
churches, others working from an original and
very beautiful design of the Last Supper for an
altar piece some piecing tombstOnes, others
brooches and bracelets, while numbers were oc-
cupied in celebrating faCades for churches,
houses, and shops. In the studio the two chief
artists were completing one the drapery,
the other the face of a lite-siZe portrait
for the Kensington Museum, while on
the ground floor the greater number
were picking to pieces, repairing, or
remanutacturng entirely the old mosaics from
the Cathedral of st. Mark 5. With the admins
tration of this cathedral the company has entered
into contract for the entire repairs of the mo-
sale paVements and the colossal subjects on the
domes and ceilings, to be completed in fourteen
years 0,C00 francs to be paid annually for the
labor only. Twelve figures are already COM
pleted and repacedawith such eXacttude that,
looking upward from the pavement, ii is impos-
sible to distinguish the new from the old. The
originals were the work of the thirteenth cen
! tury artists, and their decay is owing TO the
subsidence in the walls, not to any defect either
| in the enames, the cement, or the labor, since
the teSSerg still adhere to the cement, and,
with the exception of the flesh tints, retain
! their pristine cOlOrS. All these repairs, and
! also the new works, are. rs we have said exc
! cuted i1 the establishment in Campo s. Vic, for
! whereas the old mosaicists work toilfuly and
! painfully, standing on scaifOdng with uplitted
arms to fix the teSSerR on the actual walls or
| roofs the modern patron of this exquisite art
! Sgnor Salyiati-has, by the simplest process,
| enabled his pupils to work with as much ease as
miniature painters at their easel copy of the
| subject is traced on n rough paper covered with
common PASTE and ON this the enamels are
| fixed with their surface dOwnwards. When COM
! pleted the subject Is carefully packed and con-
! Veycd to its destination, the upper, rough sur
! face fixed on cement already laid on the wall or
ceiling, then the paper and paste are washed off
! The facing, and the subject remains complete.
In this manner 100 square metres of mosaic
! work have been executed in this establishment,
| some of them exquisite miniatures such as the
| pOrtraits of Columbus and Marco Polo toI
| which the municipality of Venice paid l3OOC
francs: Others for the kensington Museum for
which 2500 each was paid; the remainder monu-
mental mosaic, which costs about so francs per
souare foot. The sum realized for the 160 me-
tres is 80 $50 francs Fifty worhmen are en-
ployed in this department. asked the director
| III he took apprentices. He said;-"NO, they
wo1Id waste our time, which is the article Of
which we have neast to spare, but our pupils
Come 10 MS chiefly from the Venetian Academy
At'drst had great hopes of employing women
ami / have nov given up the idea, owing TO thl
impOssibility of finding any girls in Venice wltl
n decent knowledge OF drawing THIS renari