We feel that we cannot sufficiently admire the structural detail of the greater number of these productions, and the rich effects of colour united in their composition. But here we may remark, that to render the ancient Byzantine mosaic an appropriate decorative agent, it is necessary that the artist should not copy implicitly from the works of the past, but seek most to maintain between it and surrounding influences the same relation that formerly existed between it and the people under whose hands it attained such distinguished pre-eminence. As we have already said, the art originated beneath the skies of Italy and Greece, and with it the system of bright and glittering colours which rendered it so perfect in itself, and in its relation to all surrounding things. Deprived of these bright influences of climate, we find it in our own country no less beautiful in itself, but wanting in a due harmonious relation to the tone of colour it is brought in contact with. To remedy this--to naturalise the art, in fact--the artist should be content to trust rather to harmony of design than to chromatic effects; so that the eye, uncaught by a general sensation of brilliancy and glitter, may repose upon the quiet harmony of the design; and this remark we make as applying more or less to all mosaic, and entering as a matter of consideration into every application of which it is capable in this country, though more particularly in reference to the especial description executed by Mr. Stephens.
In rejecting strong chromatic effects, however, we would not be understood to sanction neglect of the very material aid afforded by colour in giving life and purpose to mosaic; but we would have it studied with a view to its creating as many varieties of pattern as can possibly result from the introduction of a limited range of colour upon a uniform series of designs. For instance, how many varieties of pattern the eye is able to trace from the simple repetition of a six-rayed star of uniform colour upon a ground broken into triangles by the introduction of two other colours to complete the triple harmony! This is an unfailing charm in mosaic: however simple or however complex the construction of the design, viewed from a distance, the eye is constantly discovering, without mental effort, fresh combinations which, arising out of natural and fixed laws, communicate pleasure to the beholder.