Severini was something of a renaissance man who moved freely from painter, to theoretician, to designer, to teacher, to mosaicist. But it is probably his contribution to the art of mosaics that truly distinguishes him from his peers.

 

He was the driving force of mosaics in Paris (where he established a dedicated school) and, having studied the Early Byzantine mosaics of Ravenna, he likened the laying of tesserae to brushstrokes of Cezanne and the Pointillism of Seurat.

 

It was Severini, the "father of modern mosaics", who elevated the medium to new heights of appreciation as an artform.