New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-05-01
THE ARTS IN ITALY.
MOSAIC Act WORK FOR WOMEN.
LION ouR owN CoRREsPoNpENr.l


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MOSAIC Act WORK FOR WOMEN.
IRON OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT
VENICE, April 10.-SummOned to Venice on bust
ness at the commencement of the month, paid
visit as usual to the Anglo-Itaan Glass and Mosaic
Company in Campo S. Vic, on the Grand Canal, and
this time came away with the conviction that SINH
lar establishment in America might furnish easy
pleasant and lucrative work for hundreds of women
who have neither 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 orders for
enamel mosaic from California aud New-York, and
demands for price lists from Washington, proving
that not only in the old world but in the new CHR
landajos saying that 4" Mosaic is the only painting
for eternity" is being at length practically appre
ciated On benches and on the floors of the various
studios of the establishment 40 or 30 men and
lads were at work; some copying in enamel Fra
BeatO's angels for English churches, others work
ing from an original and very beautiful design
of the Last Supper for an altar piece, some
piecing toubstones others brooches and bracelets,
while numbers were occupied in celebrating facades
for churches houses, and shops. IT. The studio the
two chief artists were completing the drapery,
the other the face of lifesze portrait for the Ken
singtOn Museum while on the ground floor the
greater number were picking to pieces repairing, or
remanufacturing entirely the old mosaics from the
Cathedral of St. Marks. With the administration OF
this Cathedral the Company has entered into a
tract for the entire repairs Of the mosaic payements
and the colossal subjects the domes and ceilings,
to be completed in IA years. 10000 francs TO be paid
annually for the labor only. Twelve figures are al
ready completed and replaced, with such exacttude
Iodine from tho il
sble to distinguish the new from the old. The
originals were the work Of the Thirteenth Century
artists and their decay is owing to the subsistence in
the walls, not 10 any defect either in the enamels,
the cement or the labor since the teSerGe still adhere
to the cement and with the exception of the flesh
tnts retain their pristine cOors All these repairs,
and also the new works, are, we have said, exc
cuted in the establishment in Campo S. Vic, for
whereas the old mosaicists work toilfuly and pain
fully standing ON scafolding with uplifted arms to
fix the tess1R on the actual walls or roofs the mod
ern patron of this exquisite art-Sig. Salyati-has,
by the simplest process, enabled his pupils to work
with as much ease miniature painters at their
easel. A copy of the subject is traced on rough
paper covered with common paste, aud on this the
enamels are fixed with their surface downward
When completed tho subject is carefully packed and
conveyed to its destination the upper, rough surface
then the paper and paste are washed off the facing,
and the subject remains complete.
In this manner 1GO square metres of mosaic work
have been executed in this establishment, some of
them exquisite miniatures, such the portraits of
Columbus and Marco Polo, for which the Municipal
ity of Venice paid 1900 1r; others for the Kensng
ton Museum, for which $500 each was pad the re-
mainder monumental mosaic, which costs about 80
fr per square foot The realized for the 100
meters is 3d. $50 Fl. Fifty workmen are employed in
this department asked the director il he took APP
prentices. Ho said: No; they would waste our time
which is the article of which have least to spare
but our pupils come TO chiefly from the Venetian
Academy At first had great hopes of employing
women, but have now given up the idea. owing to
the impOssblty of finding any girls in Venice with
a decent knowledge of drawing" This remark set
me thinking how easy it would be for a few enter
prising American women, who possess fair knowl-
edge of drawing TO come over and learn the mosaic
art thoroughly and return to their own country to
furnish ornamental pictorial, and monumental mo-
sale to all who require decoration which alone de-
fies wind, smoke, and water.
Should this Mosaic art ever become fashionable in
America, it will be question whether the enamels
should be imported or manufactured. The art of
making enamels is certainly more difficult than that
of putting them together and it is the general opin-
iou that those manufactured in England are not
equal to those produced at Murano first by
Lorenzo Prad, in this century, and now by
the Anglo-Italian Company The colored en-
amels which are formed of the same materials
of which common glass is made with the addition OF
certain mineral substances, depends for opaqueness
soldity and softness of hue and color chiefly on the
degree and continuance Of heat TO which they are
subjected in the process of fusion and also on the
careful elaboration of the different elements have
seen blocks come out of the furnace as dull as brick
or transparent as window glass; in either case unn
to render the effect of painting. The gold and sllve
enamels in which gold or silver leaf is imprisoned
by the action of fire between ground of thick glas
below and film of the purest glass above, are still
more difficult to bring 20 perfection but In this,
in all cases, practice makes perfect"
Before leaving my favorite haunt on the Camp
| Viz let me raw n word about tho glassblowing de
naTtment which has progressed in like proportion
ihe mosaic Not only have all the lost secrets OF In
oast been ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS OF color, form, AM
| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS new combinations OF paste ant
! new methods of assimilation are dally being eVOlVe
from the fairy fingers of the OF Murant
The largest and most elaborate glass cnandelle
ever manufactured has just been sent nome 10 PIinc
Giovapelli who has ordered five others t0r ms bal
room overlooking the Grand Canai. III mas 90 candle
sticks on the lower and IS on the upper tier ana ID
tween the two flowers and leaves that seem plncke
from the Spring smiling fields. Inc vases, usuaii
30 heavy and vacant. are Raranne WIN mowers, Al
the effect u the whole when nRhteu, IL iaiIy iiA