http://beyondbordersmedievalblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-appropriation-ofcosmati-and.

html
Wednesday, 4 December 2013

The Appropriation of the Cosmati and Cosmatesque

The Roman Medieval Cosmati works of the tenth to the thirteenth century may have
been an innovation in church ornamentation for the period, but the material and
content presented in the patterns are appropriated from years past. The Roman
craftsmen repurposed ancient stones like porphyry, serpentine, and Carrera marble
from ruined sites, using the stones in the laying of floors at Christian houses of
worship. The patterns in the floors, though laden with Christian symbolism, were
also based upon Classical philosophies involving the Platonic and Aristotelian
elements and the cosmos. In this post, I will discuss the significance of appropriated
material and concepts in Medieval Cosmati pavements, and then consider the
Victorian revival of the Cosmatesque in the United Kingdom.

The spolia used in Medieval Roman pavements were not transported from afar-- the
stones were taken from ruined Classical sites. For the Classical construction to be
possible, the stones travelled a great distance, including porphyry from modern-day
Egypt. Egyptian porphyry was used in pagan houses of worship, and later repurposed in locations like Santi Quattro Coronati (4th century pagan origins, 6th
century Christian conversion, 12th century completion), and at the height of
Cosmati creation, moved as far away as London in the laying of the Westminster
pavement (13th century completion).[1] Serpentine is found mostly in mainland
Greece, linking the famous baldachin of St. Peters the home of Classical philosophy.
This transaction of materials makes the interchange of ideologies more plausible.
The following images and analyses serve as examples of exchange of material and
cultural goods.

Cosmati Pavement in the San Silvestro Chapel at Santi Quattro Coronati, Rome

St. Silvestro Chapel at Santi Quattro Coronati (SQC), Rome: SQC is home to two
Cosmati pavements: one within the main basilica, the other within the St. Silvestro
Chapel. The pavement in the St. Silvestro Chapel predates that of the main basilica
and has a several symbolic features placed within the spolia stones. The prominent
shape in this pattern is the quincunx (one form surrounded by four so that the four

make the corners of a square). The three here could represent the Trinity, which is
alluded to by the white cross in the quincunx nearest the entrance. The white
marble may represent peace or purity, but perhaps it is more likely that it
represents Christ at the centre of the universe, as suggested by the quincunx at the
Westminster pavement. The abundant use of porphyry is perhaps a reference to
royalty, as in the divine royalty of Christ, or the royalty of Constantine who is
portrayed in the chapels famous mosaic.[2]

Westminster Abbey Cosmati Pavement

Westminster Abbey, London: As mentioned in the SQC analysis, the quincunx is
often thought to be a representation of the universe. This is due an inscription that
once was inset around the Westminster pavement describing it as the eternal
pattern of the universe.[3] This inscription is the only one of its kind, making the
Westminster pavement the only labelled Cosmati work. Scholars like Lindy Grant,
Richard Mortimer, and Richard Foster have greatly elaborated on pattern, but to
sum up their studies, the quincunx represents the four Platonic elements in the
exterior orbs, and the Aristotelian fifth element, aether, in the centre. These
elements were considered constants in universe. As science and religion often
overlapped in the Middle Ages, the quincunx and the elements that make up the
universe also had a religious interpretation, one in which God replaced aether and
the four elements would be the four Evangelists. In the case of SQC, perhaps the
four arms represent the Four Crowned Martyrs.

Large quincunx roundel of the Sistine Chapel Cosmati pavement

Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel at St. Peters Basilica, Vatican City: Like the pavements of SQC and
Westminster, the Sistine Chapel pavement features a quincunx. The pavement seen
here is under Michelangelos famous ceiling, but do note that there is another
pavement in the Stanza della Signatura which features the cross keys of St. Peter.
This pavement is significant as it sits under the image of God creating Adam, which
is consistent with the cosmological reference made by the Westminster inscription.
Additionally, the nine rings that make up the roundels of the larger quincunx (seen
above) are perhaps another reference to the heavens, particularly the nine levels of
Purgatory so famously written about by Dante.
This theory needs further investigation on my part, but considering the nine layers
and Dantes Purgatorio certainly makes an intriguing query.

Monreale Cathedral, Sicily: Lastly I would like to examine the pavement at the
Monreale Cathedral in Sicily. Although not part of Rome, Sicily and Naples were part
of the Holy See.[4] This connection with Rome made for many shared cultural
practices, but the lifestyle in the south was different from that of Rome as Sicily was
influenced by Muslim culture until the Normans conquered in 1072, which led to the
structure we see today.[5] The original worship centre of Monreale was a small
church. The structure as it can be seen today was built by King William II in the early
twelfth century (circa 1174). The Roman quincunx is present at Monreale, but the
Islamic muqarna has become the more featured geometric form. In many eastern
cultures, the eight-pointed star represents protection, spiritual enlightenment,
resurrection, rebirth, infinity and abundance.[6] In Islam there are seven hells and
eight paradises, perhaps making the muqarna a symbol of paradise.[7] Christianity
uses the number eight in art and design because after the flooding of the world and
Noahs ark, eight people were saved in this mass baptism, thus resulting in eightsided baptisteries and churches.[8] As discussed in former posts, the number 8 is
also infinity when turned upon its side.

What can be concluded from the medieval Cosmati works is that both material and
content are spolia. The same can be said for Victorian adaptation of Cosmati-style
pavements known as the Cosmatesque. One of the most highly-recognized Victorian
Cosmatesque pavements is that of Durham Cathedral. The material of the choir and
high altar pavements are predominately sandstone, but the pattern includes a
multitude of geometric forms borrowed from pavements created before its time. The
pavement was laid by Sir Gilbert Scott in 1870 during a renovation of the cathedral,
which also included alterations to the towers, foundation, and smaller damages to
the structure.

Cosmati works have long been a favourite of mine for their intricate patterns and
bold colours, but what is truly incredible is the long history of exchange of materials,
content, and craft of the pavements. The exchange of material is evidence of longstanding economic agreement between a multitude of cultures, but the patterns of
the pavement express a cultural exchange. The geometric symbolism is a tradition
of religious and scientific understanding passed down from ancient times, to
medieval scholars and in turn, craftsman, and later adapted by Victorian patrons in
their great refurbishment. The Westminster inscription reveals that the quincunx
pattern is best called the "eternal pattern of the universe," but the process of
creating these pavements reveals a pattern of cultural exchange.

View of the Victorian Cosmatesque Pavement

http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/cosmat
i-mosaics-recycled-art.html
Cosmati Mosaics: Recycled Art
In the 12th and the 13th century, an Italian family business elevated recycling to an
art form. Named for Cosmas, the founding father of the enterprise, they are
collectively known as the Cosmati. Using ancient art buried in the rubble of Rome,
they created outstanding works of art.

by +Lucas Di on History

The size of the city of Rome was an indicator to its importance in the world at any
given time. During its heydays, it had the size appropriate for the most important
city in Europe and maybe the world. When Rome lost its status as a power center to
Constantinople and Ravenna respectively, people and businesses moved out and
things started to crumble. By the 12th century, rubble from the Roman metropolis
was widely used as building material for the provincial little town Rome had
become.

The Cosmati family specialized in collecting rare materials such as marble in various
colors, red and green porphyry, pink granite and any other colored stones. Cutting
and polishing these finds, they set them in intricately designed patterned
decorations and mosaics into columns, floors, altars, memorials, and permanently
installed church furniture.

Taking their inspiration from Byzantine art as well as from Islamic art, they
developed abstract patterns to adorn flat and curved surfaces. The work of laying
flat surfaces was much easier than in the more elaborate mosaic style favored by
Byzantine artists on curved surfaces. True mastery of the art is therefore shown in

the smaller artworks on columns and in cupolas rather than in the design of a floor
or a flat wall.

The earliest piece attributable to a member of the family dates to 1190 and may be
found in a church near Fabieri in Italy. Individually attributable works of art for
members of the Cosmati family continue from there on for a hundred years in and
around Rome. The art form is mainly restricted to ecclesiastical buildings as its
pricing was a matter for state budget rather than private sponsorship. The business
floundered after the Pope was kidnapped by the French and made prisoner at
Avignon in 1305. While the French held the papacy to ransom for a hundred years,
Rome played Sleeping Beauty and the Cosmati family lost its livelihood.

The name of Cosmati Art was first coined by Italian historian Della Valle in 1791. He
found a document pertinent to the building of the cathedral in Orvieto which
mentioned Giacomo di Cosmate Romano by name as the artisan doing the inlay
work in the building. Assuming that all the known artwork of the same style was
executed by members of the same family of artisans, he coined the term Cosmati
art.

Later historians found over 50 artists doing this kind of work; they were members of
seven families of artisans in the trade. The term for the artwork was re-coined to
Cosmatesque Art to cover all the artists, while Cosmati Art now only refers to works
securely attributed to members of the Cosmati family. It has to be stated that it
does not mean by far that ancestral Cosmas was really the inventor of the art form.

The use of different stones in floors over time led to uneven floors as harder stones
would be virtually unaffected by wear and tear while softer ones would wear out
and form tripping holes. The floors had to be repaired often since then and were
often disfigured by the rank amateurs who did the repair work. Dont judge the

master artists on how their floors look after centuries of dragging feet. Judge them
instead on the work they left behind on columns and walls.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Cosmati Floors
We visit many churches in Italy because they embody lots of history and art. Although
most have sculpture,
wall and ceiling frescoes, or paintings by noted artists, lately Ive been drawn to the
colorful floor pavements known as Cosmati.

Santa Maria in Trastevere, Roma.

Medieval pavement re-laid 19th c.

What are they?

Cosmati floors, also called Cosmatesco or Cosmatesque, are a particular form of what
archeologists, architects and art historians call opus sectile (cut work) where pieces of
stone are cut to whatever size and shape is required to create geometric patterns when
fitted together. Roman and Byzantine mosaics, termed opus tessellatum, are pictures
and designs created from small, more or less uniform size pieces of colored stone and
glass called tesserae. The progression from mosaic to Cosmatesque reflects both
technical discoveries and evolved tastes in decoration.

Pompeiian mosaic above and floor below.

On its way toward opus sectile, a countertop in Herculaneum, 1st century.

The characteristics of Cosmati work include:
1) Complex assemblies of simple shapes like triangles and squares in repetitive designs,
often featuring red and green stone;

Santa Maria in Trastevere.

Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Roma.

(Cosmedin derives from the Greek word for decorate, kosmon.)
2) Interweaving, sinuous ribbons (known as guilloch) filled with geometric patterns,
that link large circles;

S.M. in Cosmedin.

San Giovanni in Laterano, Roma.

S.M. in Trastevere

3) A large circular stone surrounded by four smaller rounds, unified by ribbonsa

pattern called aquincunx;

San Benedetto in Piscinula, said to be the only 12th-century Cosmatesco floor in Rome
that has never been re-laid. Note the small size of the white marble pieces
compared to the repaired floors in the photos below.

San Crisogono, Trastevere, Roma.

San Giovanni in Laterano.

4) Wide bands of white marble between the colored features to make them stand out;

San Crisogono, above and below.

5) Peripheral infill and rectangular sections of fantastically varied patterns using stones
of many colors.

S. Maria in Cosmedin, above and below.

San Giovanni in Laterano.

Why are they called Cosmati?

In the later 12th century an artisan in decorative stone near Rome named Lorenzo di Tebaldo
adapted Byzantine and ancient Roman styles of geometric floor design to produce a distinctive style.
At least, he and several further generations of his family were credited by 19th-century art historians
with developing the style, which was named Cosmatesque after Lorenzos grandson, Cosma
apparently Cosmas name appeared on many of the works studied at that time. Despite later
scholarship that has brought to light the earlier workshops of Magister Paulus (from about AD 1100)
and other early marblers (marmorari), and the existence of older work in Sicily, for better or worse
the collective name for artists in this arresting art form is now Cosmati. (Cosma himself was
apparently named for Saint Cosma, not for the Greek word that means decoration.)

Church of the Martorana, Palermo. AD 1143.

S. Benedetto in Piscinula, Roma. 12th century.

Why did Cosmati work develop in Rome?
In medieval times when the Cosmati were at work, their marble and other stone came from the
ruined temples and buildings of ancient Rome. The extraordinary disks that mark their work come
from salvaged columns carefully sliced. Buried statues, fallen slabs and inscription panels were dug
up and turned into millions of pattern pieces and frames. Aside from creamy whites, the primary
stones used were both green and reddish purple porphyry, though yellow giallo antico and many
other colored marbles show up as well. The designs and patterns used are very similar to those
found in Constantinople and other Byzantine sites. It is thought that Eastern mosaic craftsmen
brought in to decorate the Monastery of Monte Cassino south of Rome in the late 11th century may
have inspired the style that became known as Cosmati work. So perhaps its no coincidence that
Magister Paulus had his workshop nearby in Ferentino.

S. Maria in Trastevere, porphyry disk.

San Crisogono.
Granite disk, red and green porphyry and giallo antico .
Is all Cosmati work in Italy?
No, though most is south of the Alps. But in the last few years an extraordinary Cosmati floor in
Westminster Abbey in London has been restored. It was originally installed in 1268 by a Roman
marbler named Pietro Oderisi, who may have brought most of the pattern stones with him pre-cut
for efficiency. One big difference from the typical Italian work is that instead of white background
framing marble, the Westminster floor uses dark Purbeck marble from the south of England.
Uniquely, the Great Pavement at Westminster also came with inlaid brass inscriptions. Aside from
the date and dedication it provides a chronology for the end of the world and reveals some of the
symbolism entailed in the stone patterns. More about the floor restoration and its cosmic patterns
and symbolism can be found at the Abbey website and elsewhere on YouTube.

Views of the Great Pavement in Westminster Abbey.

Photos Dean and Chapter, Westminster Abbey.

Why do I like this patterned work so much?

Ive always been a sucker for color, so I love the beautiful stone combinations spilling across the
floor. The swirling ribbons and unexpected complexity of the fillings make a concise orderliness on
the large scale from an otherwise chaotic diversity of small designs. In some ways it reminds me of a
Baroque fugue in which small musical segments swirl together to create a satisfying and perhaps
profound unity. Beyond those esthetic charms, having worked with marble and granite I appreciate
the labor, skill and precision embodied in those millions of hand-cut, hand-set and hand-polished
rocks, most of which had a previous life in some Imperial Roman monument or statue. It is some of
the most pleasing and exquisite recycling youre likely to find anywhere.
Roberto

Santa Maria in Trastevere.

http://www.pleiade.org/col_geal/aux_armessymbolism-notes.html
Aux armes symbolism: notes

And when Thyself with shining Foot shall pass

Among the Guests Star-scatter'd on the Grass,
And in thy joyous Errand reach the Spot
Where I made oneturn down an empty Glass!

LXXV: Rubiyt of Omar Khayym. Translation: Edward FitzGerald (First edition,

1859).

Notes

1. The pattern exhibited in the earlier arms (see Symbolism: Fig. b) has been in
widespread use throughout the Islamic world[a] from early-medieval times and in
later European Jewish documents. Notwithstanding the then ardent and vicious
hostility of many Christians towards the Islam and Judaism, this origin was no
barrier to its adoption in thirteenth century England and Italy, most notably in
ecclesiastical art and architecture. Significant early examples of the pattern in
medieval Europe include:

The tomb of Henry III, Westminster Abbey (c.1291)

The Seven Stars badge resembles a stellate motif to be found in several of the
Cosmati roundels on the plinth of the tomb of Henry III. Although the implicit
geometry of this motif is congruent with that of the badge, its elemental
composition is not identical: the roundel (Fig. 1) shows a circumscribed portion of an
extended plane of abutted hexagrams, instead of an aliquot part as in the badge
(Fig. 2).

The pattern of the tesserae is shown in Fig. 1 in grey, with the motif coloured: the
stars are set in rhombille tiles3 on a contrasting ground composed of equilateral and

isosceles triangular elements. This illustration somewhat amends the irregular

geometry of the actual workalthough as the plinth was readily accessible to
generations of relic-seeking pilgrims, who have stripped it of much of the accessible
decoration, these flaws may be the result of inept restoration rather than the
original work.

The Cosmati pavements, Westminster Abbey.[b,c]

The Cosmati pavement before the High Altar in Westminster Abbey is the most
splendid example of opus sectile work north of the Alps. A Latin inscription added
after the death of Henry III in 1272 records that In [1268]the third King Henry,
the city, Odoricus and the Abbot [Richard de Ware] put these porphyry stones
together. After nearly six hundred years of constant use it was hidden in obscurity
for almost a hundred and fifty years, until it was revealed in 2008: thus showing the
precursor of the plinth motif (Fig. 3b).

There is a similar and contemporaneous pavement in the adjoining Chapel of

Edward the Confessor (which was built above the Saint's original crypt and tomb to
contain his new monument in 1269). Both the pavement and monument are
recorded as being the work of Peter the Roman. The consistent workmanship and
artistry in all these works support the compelling presumption that Odoricus, Peter
the Roman and Pietro di Oderisio were one and the same person.

A pattern in an alternative rendering of the arms (see Symbolism: Fig. d) is also

found in the Westminster pavement (Fig. 3c) and in the Mausoleo del cardinale De
Braye, Orvieto.

On hexagrams

The extensive use of hexagrams in the pavements and monuments of Westminster

Abbey may now seem incongruous to a Christian setting, particularly since both
Henry III and Edward I were zealously anti-semitic. Amongst his numerous
oppressions, Henry extorted exclusive and onerous taxes from the Jewish
community and later, with the Edict of Expulsion of 1290, his son expelled all Jews
from the kingdom and expropriated their property. Nor are the emblems unique as
Christian hexagrams, six-pointed stars were common motifs in medieval
cathedrals1 and churches throughout western Europe. In contrast, the hexagram or
Megan David ( , properly the Shield of David but more commonly known as
the Star of David) was not seen as a Jewish symbol in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries. Hence when Henry III decreed that all Jews within his realm wore a
badge of shame this was cruelly and sardonically prescribed as the profile of the
Mosaic Tablets of the Law and not the then unrecognised Megan David. Thus it is

implausible that the presence of hexagrams in the pavements then evoked Judaic
antecedents. Although lacking the geometric subtlety of their precursors the
redolent Islamic inspiration for the pattern is now plain, yet during that time this too
was obscure and esoteric. Not that the hatred and bigotry these medieval rulers felt
towards Islam was any less implacable than theirs for Judaism: rather, they were
probably ignorant of and utterly indifferent to the provenance of such esoteric
decorations.

The earliest evidence of the symbol in a Jewish context is in the architectural

ornamentation of a fourth or fifth century synagogue in Capernaum, Galileewhich
was evidently built over an earlier synagogue, perhaps contemporaneous with Jesus
(Luke 7:110). However its there use may have been merely decorative, since it is
interspersed amongst other ancient geometric patterns, such as meanders and
pentangles. The historical record of Judaism in the following five centuries is empty
of references to the symbol: it is next recorded in rabbinical manuscripts and in
codices from the early-eleventh century, ostensibly as a Kabbalistic symbolfirstly
in a carpet page of the Leningrad Codex of 1008, the oldest extent manuscript of
the Hebrew Bible. By then it is usually seen in the form of the Megan David, but its
first recorded use as an explicit emblem of Jewish identity followed much later, in
1354, when the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV granted the Jewish community of
Prague the right to display a flag bearing a single six-pointed star. However it was
not until the seventeenth century, again in central and eastern Europe, that the
widespread use of the Megan David as a distinctly Judaic symbol emerged. This
latter tradition was probably the inspiration for its adoption by the Zionist
movement, following the advocacy of a flag with seven hexagrams by the
preeminent early Zionist Theodore Herzl (18601904), although his design was not
used.

Whether or not Islam took the pattern from a Judaic emblem (if then it was ever
such) is unknown. It is likely that it was an independent invention of Persian artists,
as one of the prolific range of advanced geometric patterns derived from the
sophisticated mathematics of the medieval Persian Schools.[d] Earlier still, the
Shatkona (a hexagram) was common in the cosmological iconography of Hinduism
and Buddhism, but its origins are lost in Indic antiquity. An identical figure is also to
be found on many of the late seventh century stone lanterns (dai-dr) on the
approach path (sand) in the Japanese Shinto shrine of Jing.

Despite this evident widespead usage, the display of multiple hexagrams in

extended patterns remained peculiar to Islam and, later and more rarely,
Christianity.

As part of a pervasive revolt against reason, the late-twentieth century saw a

proliferation of delusional conspiracy theories.2 In some, the hexagram is ascribed
to purported secret societies such as the successors to the Illuminati and a
mishmash of crypto-satanic cults. This appears to be founded on a combination of
specious numerology666 is the Number of the Beast in Revelation 13:18an
ill-informed obsession with the iconography of Freemasonry3 and blatant antiSemitism.

See:

Cosmatesque Hexagrams: a photographic collection of magnificent architectural art.

Dr. Ze'ev Goldman (2010). Magen David Symbol Research from the 1st to the 11th
century C.E.
Star of David blog: the Star of David, its history, meanings and usage in various
cultures.
The papal funeral and sepulchral monuments in San Francesco alla Rocca, Viterbo.
The tomb of Henry III was commissioned by his son and successor, Edward I, who
would have been familiar with the novelty and slendour of the works of the Cosmati
school, both from the Westminster pavements and, perhaps, in a notable Italian
example: namely, the funeral monument to Pope Clement IV in San Francesco alla
Rocca (q.v.) in Viterbo, which was completed in 1270 and exhibits Pietro di
Oderisio's characteristic Cosmati decoration. Edward passed through Italy on his
return from the Ninth Crusade in 1273. His itinerary[e] is known to have included a
brief stay in Rome followed by a prolonged stay at the Papal Court in Orvieto.
Although unrecorded, it is likely thata least for short periodshe was also in
Sutri and Viterbo, then the only substantial towns between them on the Via Cassia.
Rome and Orvieto are some seventy-five miles apart and a winter journey to Orvieto
must then have taken at least three days. As a devout Christian, his stay in Viterbo
would plausibly have entailed a pilgrimage to the recent papal monument.
Furthermore, it seems improbable that he would not have visited the site of the
death of Henry of Almain, his cousin and close friend from childhood, who had been
murdered there during Mass in the Chiesa di San Silvestro less than two years
before.[f]

2. The significance of all symbolism is mutable. An astronomical interpretation may

seem obvious to us, but in other times and other places other connotations were
evoked: apart from those few scholars familiar with the works of Ptolemy and
Aristotle, the science of astronomy was unknown in medieval England and although
such emblems denoted the starry heavens, they would then have been endowed
with a predominantly religious significance. Now an array of stars with an inverse
pattern recalling the molecular bonding pattern of carbon rings may seem a doubly-

apt emblem for a member of a carbon-based life form assembled from the stardust
or debris of successive supernov.[g]

Les gens ont des toiles qui ne sont pas les mmes. Pour les uns, qui voyagent, les
toiles sont des guides. Pour d'autres elles ne sont rien que de petites lumires.
Pour d'autres qui sont savants elles sont des problmes.

People have stars that are not the same. For some, who are travellers, the stars are
guides. For others they are no more than little lights. For others, who are scholars,
they are problems.

Antoine de Saint-Exupry (1943). Le Petit Prince.

3. The intrinsic geometry in the arms as shown in Figures b & d and the Seven
Stars badge is a rhombille tessellation, as it is reducible to an isohedral periodic
tiling of identical 60 rhombi in a Euclidean plane (Fig. 2). The pattern of the arms in
Figure b also has an equal areal distribution of the two colours, with hexagons in
blue and hexagrams in white (for clarity, these are shown in blue and gold in figure
2).

4. The blazon is the prescriptive and definitive element of heraldry and any
particular depiction of arms is subordinate to it: thus the potentiality for several
distinct renderings of these arms is not in itself paradoxical. Even though renderings
of the arms shown in Figures c & d were never used, the rules of priority and
exclusivity of blazons preclude their later use as the arms of another and they
remain exclusively available to the present bearer. Likewise, the subsequent
independent use of the blazon Azure sem of Mullets of six points conjoined Argent
is proscribed: since this would necessarily purport to subsume the prior blazon
Azure sem of Mullets of six points appoint Argent (see Aux armes: notes: 3).

5. The term Flower of Life is a twentieth century neologism of unknown origin.

While the pattern itself is ancient, it has been the subject of a recent plethora of
esoteric speculation about its supposed primeval ubiquity, remote antiquity and
symbolic significance[h] and some rational scrutiny.[i] In reality, early examples are
scarce and confined to the eastern Mediterranean and Mesopotamia, where the
earliest datable specimen is from Nineveh c. 645 BC, as the extended pattern in an
alabaster threshold from the palace of Ashurbanipal (King of Assyria, 668627 BC).
This bears a strong resemblance to a representation of a carpet, perhaps aptly
given its original purpose (now in the Near Eastern Antiquities Collection of the
Louvre, Paris). The earlier Osireion[j] in the temple of Seti I (12901279 BC) in

Abydos exhibits several of the figures in its now customary form (Fig. 4): but the
origin of these is uncertain. Purely geometric ornamentation is uncharacteristic of
pharaonic temple architecture and the pattern is otherwise absent from Ancient
Egypt. Adjacent to the largest of the figures are comparably incised glyphs in
Ancient Greek, which may suggest that the entire group is merely sophisticated
griffiti.4 The apparently random and non-canonical arrangement of the inscriptions
on the facing stiles of a single portal in a lateral megalithic arcade, together with
their height over 3 metres above the pavement level and the anomalous lightness
of incision may be further evidence of their origin as griffitithe subterranean
Osireion was abandoned and silt-filled to a substantial depth throughout the
Classical period, during which time the upper levels of the structure may have been
readily accessible.

As for their symbolic significance, these, and the other extant early examples,
display no known contemporaneous religious or sacred attributes. In Nineveh, and
elsewhere, the pattern is clearly used as domestic decoration and while the Osireion
figures are set in a religious structure, they are not integral to it: on the contrary,
they are strikingly suggestive of the demonstrative or pedagogic diagrams of
Ancient Greek mathematicianshere carved in stone rather than traced in sand
and are alien to their sacred setting. It seems the mystical and occult properties of
the Flower of Life are, like the name itself, figments of modern imaginations. Even
so, bearing in mind the figure's simple but intricate beauty, perhaps such
projections are understandable and innocent foibles.

-------1 The Great East Window of York Minster (14058) contains a medieval stained
glass panel depicting Revelation 1:16. This incorporates a similar formation to the
much earlier seven-star Westminster motif, but with radial asterisms in place of
the hexagrams of the latter.

2 The present manifestation may be a reprise of an earlier benighted Europe:

A boundless, millennial promise made with boundless, prophet-like conviction to a

number of rootless and desperate men in the midst of a society where traditional
norms and relationships are disintegratinghere, it would seem, lay the source of
that subterranean medieval fanaticism which has been studied in this book. It may
be suggested here, too, lies the source of the giant fanaticisms which in our day
have convulsed the world.

Norman Cohn (1970), The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and
Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages. Paladin. p. 288.

See also: Norman Cohn (1967), Warrant for Genocide: the Myth of the Jewish worldconspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Eyre & Spottiswoode.

This is not to say that conspiracies have not and do not exist: nation states and
corporations (and other sectional interests) have an evident mutual predilection for
cooperation in the pursuit of their aims. This ubiquitous rent seeking is at least as
old as the medieval Guilds; burgeoned with the growth of mercantilism in the
sixteenth to late eighteenth centuries and dirigisme in the twentieth; and is now
revenant and pestilential to freedom as crony capitalism. Rather, the notion that
pervasive clandestine networks are covertly working towards nefarious global ends
is plainly contrary to the evidence. Our shared propensity for error, which outweighs
even our greed and capacity for iniquity, and a common limited understanding of
the complexity of the world must constrain such endeavours. But their greatest flaw
is that not all men and women are credulous and pliant, some act in an ethical and
courageous manner: thus these hermetic realms are always insecure. Even so, the
incoherent fears of some conspiracists are well-founded in several respects: the
ambitions of aspiring oligarchiesbut real rather than chimericalwith the
complicity of political power may be enduring threats to freedom and property; and
it is in the nature of political power that it is inimical to truth and resistant to its
discovery and disclosure. Against such collusions, an Open Society under the Rule of
Law is a better defence than fatuous speculation. Rigorous public scepticism and a
close shave with Occam's Razor should suffice to frustrate these aims, whereas
irrational concoctions and hydra-headed conspiracy theories serve to distract from
genuine dangers.

3 For instance, a widely held belief is that the emblems of the early United States
incorporated esoteric Masonic symbolsin particular, the so-called Eye of
Providence on the Great Seal. This is demonstrably false: Freemasons arrogated the
emblem from the young Republic in the late-eighteenth century, its prior masonic
use is unrecorded. In late-medieval and renaissance Christian iconography, the Eye
inscribed within a triangleas in the reverse of the Great Sealwas an explicit
symbol of the Holy Trinity. It is from its later widespread appropriation as a quasireligious symbol during the Enlightenment that the Great Seal derives.

Likewise, the emblems in these arms could be seen as nefarious by many adherents
of conspiracy theories. It seems to them that eagles and stars are clandestine
symbols of the Illuminati. Their spurious arguments, such as they are, rest on
delusional fabrications erected on a slender base of apocryphal authorities and
abstruse citations, such as:

Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the
stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the LORD. Obadiah 1:4.

Since the brazenly unrepentant bearer of these arms neither holds nor aspires to
lofty rank and has no interstellar abodeother than on this beautiful wandering
orbhe's content to trust in the beneficence of a just deity (having never stoodest
on the other side against his brothers) and to withstand the rest.

4 The letter forms in the inscriptions are Classical period Attic, except for the
presence of a single digamma (). The presence of this archaic Greek letter does
not imply that the inscriptions date from pre-Classical times. Although the use of the
literal digamma declined from the beginning of the Classical period, the glyph
continued to signify the numeral 6 in the prevailing Milesian number system[k]
during the Hellenistic period and late antiquity and the use of digamma as a
specific signifier in Greek geometric delination and in musical notation persisted
into the early Christian period. The supposition that the glyphs are coeval and
associated with the figures can only be tentative: however they do not form any
recognizable word and together with the inclusion of digamma and their distinctive
segmental paragraphical layout alongside the figures this suggests they may be an
explicans in geometric notation. If so, this is a unique survivor. Thus there is no
inconsistency in attributing the inscriptions to a later period. Obviously the
inscriptions might be of an early date, since Greek mercenaries and travellers had
access to Upper Egypt from about 664 BC, but Greek contact with Egypt was only
extensive following the conquests of Alexander in 332 BC. A precise date would be
unsupported by the evidence.

The post-Classical development of Greek uncial script produced an uncial

digamma, which closely resembled the ligature for sigma-tau, stigma (). Later, its
origins in digamma then long forgotten, this glyph was conflated with the ligature,
which came to represent the numeral.

The sixth century BC Greek mathematican Pythagoras is recorded has having

made extensive travels throughout Egypt, particularly to many of its temples and
religious foundations. Nonetheless the paucity of authenticated biographical detail
and our total reliance on the accounts of later writers render any account that he
visited the Osireion purely conjectural: as, thus, is any that considers these figures
to be Pythagorean in origin.[l]

References

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Geometric Patterns in Islamic Art. New York.
Keith Critchlow. Islamic Patterns: an analytic and cosmological approach. Thames
and Hudson, 1976.
Paul Binski. The Cosmati at Westminster and the English Court Style. The Art
Bulletin. Vol.72, No.1, March 1990.
Grant, Lindy & Richard Mortimer, eds. Westminster Abbey: The Cosmati Pavements.
Courtauld Research Papers. No.3, 2002.
Peter J. Lu & Paul J. Steinhardt. Decagonal and Quasi-Crystalline Tilings in Medieval
Islamic Architecture. Science 315, 1106 (2007). Abstract.
Henry Gough (1900). Itinerary of King Edward the First throughout his reign, A.D.
12721307. pp. 2024.
Sir Maurice Powicke. The Thirteenth Century 12161307. Second edition pp. 225,
226. Oxford, 1962.
Qingzhu Yin, Stein B. Jacobsen & Katsuyuki Yamashita. Diverse supernova sources of
pre-solar material inferred from molybdenum isotopes in meteorites. Nature 415,
881883 (2002). Abstact | Full letter (131KB, PDF).
See also: Supernova: interstellar impact. Wikipedia.
Unknown author (2011). Flower of Life. Wikipedia.
Weisstein, Eric W. (2011). Flower of Life. Wolfram MathWorld.
See also: Stephen Wolfram (2002). A New Kind of Science. Wolfram Media. pp. 44
and 872.
Murray, Margaret Alice (1904). The Osireion at Abydos. Egyptian Research Account,
ninth year, 1903. ETANA.
See also: Osireion. Wikipedia.
Nick Nicholas (2005). Numerals. Thesaurus Linguae Graecae. University of
California.
William Smith, ed. (1873). A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and
mythology: Pythagoras. Perseus Digital Library.
Diogenes Lartius. Lives of the Eminent Philosophers: Book VIII: Pythagoras. Perseus
Digital Library.
Ibid., (Trans. Robert Drew Hicks, 1925) and Vol.II. Loeb Classical Library. Harvard,
1925.

Glorious intentions
Back in the 13th century the stones were chosen for their ability to take a polish and in candlelight the
High Altar would have been alive with colour and have filled people with awe, says Vanessa.
Cosmati work was hugely fashionable in Italy in the 12th and 13th centuries and Abbot Richard de Ware
had seen it at the Popes summer residence outside Rome. In Rome itself, almost every church you walk
into youll see Cosmati floors and tombs with Cosmatesque decoration.
Wanting a spectacular centrepiece for the Abbey and to reflect glory on King Henry III, Abbot de Ware
commissioned a pavement from the Italian architect Odoricus. He and his craftsmen came to England in
1268 and brought with them a supply of stone, recycled from ancient Roman ruins, to cut into tesserae.
In the pavement are marbles and colourful limestones from all corners of the Roman empire green
porphyry from Greece, purple porphyry from Egypt, and travertine from Turkey chosen for their beauty,
colour and figure. Green porphyry in particular has small crosses within the stone, which gives it Christian
connotations.
The unusual use of glass in a floor makes the Cosmati Pavement special, and uniquely its framework is
made of dark grey Purbeck marble, not the typical snowy Carrara marble of Italy. Purbeck marble is a
truly English stone and would have been worked by English craftsmen, in collaboration with Italian
craftsmen who cut the tesserae. They were all men at the top of their trade who knew their materials so
well, says Vanessa. For me it is one of the finest examples of Cosmati work in the world its so intricate
and well made, and were so lucky that theres been comparatively little restoration.

ABOVE (left-right): Conservator Ned Schrer removes a patch of ugly cement; The central roundel is an
exquisite travertine, Alabastro Fiorito, sourced from Pamukkale in Turkey.
- See more at: http://www.periodliving.co.uk/antiques-vintage/salvage/cosmati-pavement-westminsterabbey#sthash.KqKI3mRt.dpuf

http://eggshellmosaics.blogspot.com/2009/11/littl
e-history.html
Apparently eggshell mosaics were popular in Renaissance (and slightly earlier) Italy. The
artist/biographer Giorgio Vasari mentions eggshell mosaic (musaico di gusci d' uovo) in his Lives of the
Artists (Architecture) in 1551. He specifically associates the technique with Gaddo Gaddi, a Florentine
painter and mosaicist who lived from 1239-1312 or thereabouts. None of the mosaics seem to have
survived.

On his departure from Arezzo, Gaddo went to Pisa, where he made, for a niche in the chapel of the
Incoronata in the Duomo, the Ascension of Our Lady into Heaven, where Jesus Christ is awaiting her,
with a richly appareled throne for her seat. This work was executed so well and so carefully for the
time, that it is in an excellent state of preservation to-day. After this, Gaddo returned to Florence,
intending to rest. Accordingly he amused himself in making some small mosaics, some of which are
composed of egg-shells, with incredible diligence and patience, and a few of them, which are in the
church of S. Giovanni at Florence, may still be seen. It is related that he made two of these for King
Robert, but nothing more is known of the matter. This much must suffice for the mosaics of Gaddo
Gaddi. - The Lives of the Painters, Sculptors & Architects, Volume 1 by Giorgio Vasari, A. B. Hinds,
trans, 1900
Sometime in the 15th century, the painter Cennino Cennini wrote Il Libro dell' Arte, a sort of handbook
of Renaissance art methods. He included a short section on creating a "mosaic with crushed eggshells,
painted... take your plain white crushed eggshells, and lay them in over the figure which you have
drawn; fill in and work as if they were colored... when you have laid in your figure, you set to painting
it, section by section, with the regular colors from the little chest... just using a wash of the colors.
And then, when it is dry, varnish, just as you varnish the other things on the panel." He's referring to
work on glass, but you get the point. He goes on to describe the gilding of crushed eggshells.
It appears that the artists working with eggshell at the time intended to simulate the texture of
mosaics and some of the aesthetic by blocking out distinct areas of color. With traditional mosaic, all
properties of color, shading, etc. are dependent on selection and placement of available tesserae - the
little pieces of stone, glass, tile etc that make up the mosaic. Individual areas of color are distinct and
border each other sharply - there is no blending like there might be with paint.
The next reference I could find was in the May 1926 issue of Popular Science, where an artist used
them to make decorative objects in the style of seashell encrusted boxes, etc that were popular at the
time. Like the Italian masters, she painted her scenes after the eggshells were applied to the surface.

By the 1930s articles mentioning eggshells appear, peaking in the 60s and early 70s. So far I havent
found a definitive first use of dyed eggshells for mosaics, but at some point a definite aesthetic
emerged. Below is an example that showed up on ebay recently this is the classic look of an
eggshell mosaic.