The old Cathedral at Torcello has one of the most perfect examples of the twelfth century mosaic in the world.  The entire west end of the church is covered with a rich display of figures and Scriptural scenes.  A very lurid Hell is exhibited at the lower corner, in the depths of which are seen stewing, several Saracens, with large hoop earrings.  Their faces are highly expressive of discomfort.  This mosaic is full of genuine feeling; one of the subjects is Amphitrite riding a seahorse, among those who rise to the surface when “the sea gives up its dead.”  The Redeemed are seen crowding round Abraham, who holds one in his bosom; they are like an infant class, and are dressed in uniform pinafores, intended to look like little ecclesiastical vestments!  The Dead who are being given up by the Earth are being vomited forth by wild animals—­this is original, and I believe, almost the only occasion on which this form of literal resurrection is represented.

In the thirteenth century a large number of mosaic artists appeared in Florence, many of whose names and histories are available.  In the Baptistery, Andrea Tafi, who lived between 1213 and 1294, decorated the cupola.  With him were two assistants who are known by name—­Apollonius a Greek, which in part accounts for the stiff Byzantine figures in this work, and another who has left his signature, “Jacobus Sancti Francisci Frater”—­evidently a monastic craftsman.  Gaddo Gaddi also assisted in this work, executing the Prophets which occur under the windows, and professing to combine in his style “the Greek manner and that of Cimabue.”  Apollonius taught Andrea Tafi how to compose the smalt and to mix the cement, but this latter was evidently unsuccessful, for in the next century the mosaic detached itself and fell badly, when Agnolo Gaddi, the grandson of Gaddo, was engaged to restore it.  Tafi, Gaddi, and Jacobus were considered as a promising firm, and they undertook other large works in mosaic.  They commenced the apse at Pisa, which was finished in 1321 by Vicini, Cimabue designing the colossal figure of Christ which thus dominates the cathedral.

Vasari says that Andrea Tafi was considered “an excellent, nay, a divine artist” in his specialty.  Andrea, himself more modest, visited Venice, and deigned to take instruction from Greek mosaic workers, who were employed at St. Mark’s.  One of them, Apollonius, became attached to Tafi, and this is how he came to accompany him to Florence.  The work on the Baptistery was done actually in situ, every cube being set directly in the plaster.  The work is still extant, and the technical and constructive features are perfect, since their restoration.  It is amusing to read Vasari’s patronizing account of Tafi; from the late Renaissance point of view, the mosaic worker seemed to be a barbarous Goth at best:  “The good fortune of Andrea was really great,” says Vasari, “to be born in an age which, doing all things in the rudest manner, could value so highly the works of an artist who really merited so little, not to say nothing!”