Mosaic is one of fine art the oldest kinds, which originated at the ancient Sumerian dynasties, living in the Middle East, time. Sumerians encrusted wooden and pottery with shells, ivory, lapis lazuli and other materials, gluing them with resin. The strength of materials used for its manufacturing, stability to destruction and ageing, has allowed us to reach the samples dating from IV millennium BC.

The mosaic found in the city of Ur, an ornamental decor of an ancient Sumerian temple walls facing rests, has been executed of the clay wedges which face sheet has been covered with colour clays. Mosaics in Mesopotamia temples (3 thousand BC), representing ornaments of various colouring clay circles also have remained. With the first mosaics the floor was tiled and mosaics had especially practical purpose, making a floor surface smooth and even. Later, when people appreciated fine protective properties of mosaic coverings, as well as its huge decorative possibilities, the mosaic application sphere expanded: it began to decorate furniture, ware and even temples walls.
Later, at the New kingdom time (1540 – 1000 BC), in Egypt were built higher caste representatives the most beautiful palaces, which walls and floors were decorated with a precious mosaic. Besides, the ancient Egyptians decorated the furniture, household items, and Pharaohs’ costumes with semiprecious and frequently precious stones mosaic.
Mosaic has reached its greatest blossoming in the Ancient Greece in the Hellenistic era (323 - 27 BC).  At first, the Greeks laid out sea pebbles patterns in their houses open courtyards, but later were the first artificial glassy alloy users besides natural stones in mosaics manufacture that was an important step forward. Pliny and other ancient writers speak about many magnificent Greek mosaics, but their unique sample left to us found at the Olympic Zeus temple excavations was its  floor fragments (V century BC) with  sea gods beautiful images in the ornamented frame...

In I - IV centuries AD in Ancient Rome, mosaic art arose to new height. The Roman mosaics were made of marble various species and differed by realistic interpretation and a variety of household, historical, mythological and landscape motives. Today the world's largest collection of the Roman mosaics I - III centuries AD is kept in Tunis (Museum of Bardo, Sousse Museum).
 
 Byzantines possess the idea to "raise" a mosaic from a floor on a ceiling; they were also a special opaque and very dense colour glass alloy which received a name "smalto" (vitreous sand) pioneers. The smalto invention has enabled mosaics wide using for architectural constructions art decoration.
In Byzantium, since IV century AD huge squares, temples interiors from the floor and up to the dome were inlayed with mosaics. In Byzantine smalto and stones (often semiprecious) art sets were not ground (not polished) that allowed achieving special depth and colouring sonority. In the middle of V century mosaic becomes Byzantium murals the favourite technique. The greatest intensity mosaic reaches thanks to merging of smalto colour stains with a golden background. Thus gold had a double meaning, considering as a wealth symbol, and being the brightest of all colours.

XII century in mosaics history has been marked by Florentine mosaic technique occurrence –the most difficult of all mosaic technicians. Florentine mosaic style has received the name “commesso” which is translated from the Italian ”stacked” due to the fact, that semiprecious stones, after giving them different shapes, developed into a single image so that the boundary between them was almost imperceptible. In 1588 Ferdinand I de Medici officially opened a workshop on semiprecious stone products manufacturing which received the name “Gallery Dei Lavori”. Today the Florentine mosaic causes admiration and represents the great value for collectors. So in April 2005 at Sotheby’s auction in New York a lot of 3 Florentine mosaic works was sold for 87.000 US dollars.
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Since XIII-XIV centuries in Islam countries, as well as in medieval Spain and Portugal, majolica mosaics, in which produced by a pattern particles piece out complex arabesques, strictly subordinated to the architectural idea, developed. There are facing building portals in Samarkand and Bukhara created in 14-15 centuries, as well as Turabek Khanum mausoleum dome near Kun-Urgent among Central Asian mosaics the best examples. 

Grandiose mosaic "paintings" were created in Venice the main cathedral - Basilica of San Marco (XI - XIII centuries, with later additions). The cathedral interior space reaches according to different sources from 5 thousand to 8 thousand square meters, and all the walls and vaults are decorated with mosaic pictures on a gold background.

       Much later, in XIX century, "modern" and national-romantic currents Masters (Spaniard - A. Gaudy, Austrian - G. Klimt, Russian artists -V. Vasnetsov and M.A.Vrubel) often referred to the mosaic technique, as the most striking decorative style.