Chapter II of VI · Outline first, then fill
La Vite
Two stems rise out of a silver kantharosand curl into scrolls heavy with grapes.Each leaf is outlined in its darkest greenbefore a single piece of the leaf is filled.
Scroll to discover
every grape has a lighter heart
5,379 tesserae · The vine scroll
Outline first.Then thefilling.
The vine scroll is one of the oldest ornaments in Mediterranean mosaic, and the kantharos — a deep cup with two tall handles — is its natural root. Ours is silver, turned in lobes, with a gold rim and a line of water showing over the lip.
Setting a vine is a lesson in order. The stem goes in first, two rows wide with a dark edge. Each leaf gets its outline row, then its inner rows in lighter greens mixed with olive. Each grape is a single ring of pieces with a lighter heart, and only when every grape is in do we lay the gold behind them — rows that bend round each berry.
- Tesserae in the vine and the cup
- 5,379
- Grapes
- 106
- Leaves
- 12
From cartone to tessera
The same figure, three times
