the Florentine, composed of thin slices of different-colored stones, chiefly quartzose, cut to the shape of the form they are intended to represent, the petal of a flower, the wing of a bird, or whatever it may be, and set in white or black marble with cement, of which in good work not a trace should appear between the encrusted stones and the marble, not even when seen through a magnifying glass. It was this Florentine form of mosaic in pietra dura which was used by Austin de Bordeaux in the decoration of the glorious Taj-Mahal, and which has become naturalised as a local art at Agra. Austin’s earlier work at Delhi appears to have been purely imitative, as may be seen from several specimens of it now in the India Museum. The mosaic representing Opheus is in- teresting from its being supposed to be a portrait of Austin him- self. It was looted at the recapture of Delhi from the mutineers in 1857, and was purchased for the India Museum from Sir John Jones. At present the chief inlayers at Agra are two Hindus named Nathu and Parusram. The pavimentum Gracanicutn of Pliny was a concrete composition of charcoal, sand, lime, and ashes, rammed down and polished to represent black marble. Omitting the charcoal, this is pretty much the composition of the “ chunam ” walls and floors, in imitation of white marble, which are seen all over India in superior houses, and in the Madras Presidency in particular are remarkable for their high polish and real look of white marble. The commoner chunam stucco, made of kankar and pounded sand, is indeed the Roman arenatum , and the finer sort, in which pounded marble or calc-spar is substituted for sand, is the Roman marmoratum . When this stucco is decorated in various designs, as a sort of false mosaic, it may be compared to the painting in colored plasters which has long been recognised in Europe as a special art. In al fresco painting the colours are soaked into the plaster, while it is still damp, and thus the design is indelibly fixed to the hardening surface. In a tempera painting the colours, mixed with size to make them adhere, are put on the plaster after it has hardened. Often the background of a
