istanbuL’daki
kariye
mÜzesi’nden isa
mozaiği. aLtta,
20. yy. mozaik
sanatçIsI hILdreth
meIere’nin new
york’taki st. barts
katedraLi mozaiği.
the byzantIne
chrIst mosaIc In
chora museum,
IstanbuL. beLow,
20th c. mosaIc
artIst hILdreth
meIere’s st. barts
cathedraL, new
york.
enhanced the holy status of Roman basilicas. They became increasingly
popular due to the ease with which mosaics could cover the curved surfaces
of the vaults and domes of Byzantine churches. Orthodox Christianity became
closely equated with these Byzantine mosaics – literally, as some religious
people began to swallow these “sacred” mosaic pieces. As a response to
the religious zeal and fanaticism around mosaics and icons, Byzantine
Iconoclasm starting in the 8th and 9th centuries prohibited the use of
images causing the destruction of many religious themed mosaic panels.
The distinctive mosaic works of Christianity from this period are mostly found
today in Northern Italy, at monuments such as Saint Mark’s Cathedral in
Venice and Saint Vitale Church in Ravenna. In Istanbul, the Kariye museum
in Turkey still has well-preserved original pieces of mosaics while the Hagia
Sophia contains Byzantine wall and ceiling mosaic masterpieces.
The Islamic art world followed a different path in the art of mosaic. With
no possibility of figurative imagery, highly elaborate geometrical mosaics
were created particularly for example on the courtyard walls of Great Mosque
of Damascus and the Great Mosque of Cordoba and Alhambra Palace in
Andalusia.
alırken mozaik ve mimarinin modern birlikteliğini
de gözler önüne seriyor. Viyana kökenli bir başka
sanatçı olan Friedensreich Hundertwasser ise Adolf
Loos’un öngördüğü püriten, evrensel ve homojen
mimariye karşı çıkarak renk, desen ve formları cesur
bir şekilde tasarımlarına yansıttı. Hundertwasser
Gaudi’nin izinden giderek farklı malzeme ve formları
bir araya getirerek mozaik formlar ortaya koydu, bu
tür kolajları mimarisinin ayırt edici bir özelliği olarak
konumlandırdı.
Art Nouveau akımından, özellikle de Antoni Gaudi’den
etkilenen, bir başka sanatçı ise Fransız heykeltraş,
ressam ve film yapımcısı olan Niki de Saint Phalle.
Büyük ölçekli heykelleri ve mozaik kullanımı ile
tanınan sanatçının, tarot kartlarındaki figürlerden
esinlenerek tasarladığı heykelleri sergilediği ‘Tarot
Bahçesi’ isimli park farklı malzemelerin mozaik
tekniği ile bir araya getirildiği, büyük ölçekli soyut
heykellere ev sahipliği yapıyor.
İkinci Dünya Savaşı öncesinde Paris’te ortaya çıkan Art
Deco, mozaik ve yapı ilişkisine yeni bir boyut getirdi.
Tarihi ve arkeolojik formları geometrik ve stilize bir
şekilde harmanlayarak, resim ve heykelde olduğu
tHe rediscovery of Mosaics
Seen as bad copies of paintings and frescoes, mosaic art declined in the 17th
and 18th centuries, only to be rediscovered with the Art Nouveau movement
in the late 19th century with its emphasis on handcrafted high quality art
as a response to the industrial revolution
In this period, the work of Antoni Gaudí, a Barcelona-based artist and
architect initiated a new era in mosaic applications. Gaudí proclaimed
mosaics as an inseparable part of architecture in the construction of many
of his buildings with his Park Guell, 1900-1914, being the most elaborate.
He applied pieces of mosaics over amorphous forms, from columns and
sculptures to basic floor pavement creating surreal, organic shapes.
The Secession, the Austrian branch of Art Nouveau centered in Vienna, also
created many exemplary mosaics such as Gustav Klimt’s union of architecture
and mosaic in the Stoclet House in Brussels, 1905-1909. Friedensreich
Hundertwasser, another Vienna-based artist following in the steps of Gaudí
created buildings with bold colors and patterns combining various materials
and forms into collages of mosaic surfaces incorporated into his architecture.
The Art Deco movement emerged in Paris before World War II and spread
worldwide in a short amount of time. Art Deco, redefined the relationship
of mosaics to structures mixing historical and modern forms together in a
unique style exemplified by the work of American mosaic artist Hildreth
Meière in the 1930s. Her domed mosaics at buildings such as the National
Academy of Science building in Washington D.C., Baltimore Trust Building’s
MAYIS-HAZİRAN / MAY-JUNE 2011 • NATURA 35