resembling somewhat the marking of
skins of beasts.

_Mosaics and Paintings._--The method of depicting designs by bringing
together morsels of variously colored materials is of high antiquity. We
are apt to think of a line of distinction between classical and Christian
mosaics in that the former were generally of marble and the latter mostly
of colored and gilt glass. But glass mosaics were already in use in the
Augustan age, and the use of gilt tesserae goes back to the 1st or 2nd
century. The first application of glass to this purpose seems to have been
made in Egypt, the great glass-working centre of antiquity, and the gilding
of tesserae may with probability be traced to the same source, whence, it
is generally agreed, most of the gilt glass vessels, of which so many have
been found in the catacombs, were derived. The earliest existing mosaics of
a typically Christian character are some to be found at Santa Costanza,
Rome (4th century). Other mosaics on the vaults of the same church are of
marble and follow a classical tradition. It is probable that we have here
the meeting-point of two art-currents, the indigenous and the eastern. In
Rome, the great apse-mosaic of S. Pudenziana dates from about A.D. 400. The
mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna, is incrusted within by mosaic work of
the 5th century, and most probably the dome mosaics of the church of St
George, Salonica, are also of this period. Of the 6th century are many of
the magnificent examples still remaining at Ravenna, portions of the
original incrustation of St Sophia, Constantinople, those of the basilica
at Parenzo, on the Gulf of Istria, and of St Catherines, Sinai. An
interesting mosaic which is probably of this period, and has only recently
been described, is at the small church of Keti in Cyprus. This, which may
be the only Byzantine mosaic in the British dominions, fills the conch of a
tiny apse, but is none the less of great dignity. In the centre is a figure
of the Virgin with the Holy Child in her arms standing between two angels
who hold disks marked with the sign [CHI]. They are named Michael and
Gabriel. Another mosaic of this period brought from Ravenna to Germany two
generations ago has been recently almost rediscovered, and set up in the
new Museum of Decorative Art in Berlin. In this, a somewhat similar
composition fills the conch of the apse, but here it is the Risen Christ
who stands between the two archangels. Above, in a broad strip, a