Issus. The mosaics of the classical period are severe in design and chaste in coloring, but, as the influence of Indian art gradually spread over the Mediterranean countries, rich colors and even gold were gradually more and more introduced into the mosaics of the Lower Empire, and give them their distinctive character.
After the fall of the Western Empire the art seems to have perished out of Italy, until it was revived in the 13th and 16th centuries, and the revival was through the Byzantine Greeks, as is indicated by the Greek form of the Italian word mosaico .
The Saracens had from the first used glazed tiles for covering walls and roofs and pavements, and of course with a view to decorative effect. The use of these tiles had come down to them in an unbroken tradition from the times of the Chaldean monarchy, the Birs-i-Nimrud, or Temple of the Seven Spheres at Borsippa, near Babylon, of the Pyramid of Sakhara in Egypt, and of the early trade between China and Egypt, and the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates. Glazed tiles had, however, fallen into comparative disuse in the East before the rise of the Saracens, and it was the conquest of Chingiz Khan, a.d. 1206-1227, which would appear to have brought about their general use throughout the countries of Islam. That the Saracens indeed derived the art of true mosaic direct from the Greeks is proved by their calling it sephisa , from the Greek When the Caliph Walid in- vaded Palestine, one of the conditions of peace he made with the Caesar at Constantinople was that he should furnish a certain quantity of sephisa , which he had seen in the church at Bethlehem Duilt by the Empress [St.] Helena, for the decoration of the mosque he was building at Damascus.
The use of inlaid stone in true mosaic work by the Mogols in India was principally due to the revival of the ancient art in Italy. The Italians of the Renaissance developed two distinct forms of inlaying in stone, the Roman mosaic of modern jewellers, which may be compared to the opus minus vermiculatum , and u
