Italian mosaic art 1270 – 1529

My thesis concerns the practice of mosaic art throughout Italy between the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, a period long-studied for its painting, but rarely if ever for its mosaics.¹ It addresses the extent of the art form both numerically and geographically in a way not done before, and discusses its likely costliness and what is known about how mosaics were made and the artists who made them. The first four chapters largely address these key issues by analysing the two databases that I constructed from primary and secondary sources. The first database counts and tracks the installation of wall and ceiling mosaics into Italian churches between 1270 and 1529. The second database enumerates the artists who made mosaics during the same period. The last two chapters of the thesis consider why some patrons chose to commission mosaics, but why many of them turned away from commissioning the medium. Whilst explaining the reasons for the decline in any art form is tricky, I argue that they were caused by the political, economic, religious, social and philosophical changes that happened in Italy, though the reasons often appear intertwined and specific to individual cities. ¹ The reasons for choosing the dates 1270 to 1529 are explained in the Introduction.