To face p. 60.]
Plate 15.—Mosaic Decoration: Church of St. John Lateran, Rome.
(By Jacopo Torriti, 1287-1292.)
To face p. 61.]
Plate 16.—Ornament in Mosaic on the Window Reveals: Church of St. John Lateran, Rome: 1287-1292.
around most of the frescoes by Giotto in the same church.
The drawings on Plate 16, from the mosaics of the window reveals in the Church of St. John, Lateran, by Torriti, illustrate the type of ornament that was common in the thirteenth and first half of the fourteenth centuries. Plate 15 shows the position this ornament occupied in the window reveals, below the semi-dome, and how well it serves as a contrasting division between the figures of the Apostles on the wall spaces between the windows. Here the ornament plays a most effective decorative rôle in combination with the figure subjects of the tribune, and goes to prove that Torriti was fully sensible of the value of ornamental contrast in decorative mosaic, and that he was further aided in obtaining the desired unity of effect by his proper use of colour and simplicity of execution. This work testifies that Torriti was a master in the science of decoration, as he applied the true principles of his art with a correct and profound judgment, and is therefore worthy to be classed among the great forerunners of the Renaissance, and of modern art.