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How did the separation between designers and tessera setters affect Renaissance mosaic art?

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Bird mosaic — mosaic Mosaic floor fragment from a synagogue or church, cut stone with mortar from Israel, late 5th–6th century ce; in the Jewish Museum, New York City.

During the Renaissance, the separation between the leading artist, who provided the design, and the artisans who executed the work led to the degradation of mosaic art.1

In earlier periods, the primary artist was typically a master of the technical process, personally overseeing the project and often setting special parts of the mosaic themselves. However, during the Renaissance, this role was divorced from the execution; the artist simply submitted a cartoon, leaving the transposition of the design into tesserae entirely to hired artisans.1

This shift caused the art form to lose its "lifeblood," as the technical knowledge required to blend colors and handle materials effectively was diminished. Furthermore, because the artists were no longer involved in the physical placement of the cubes, the mosaics became mere imitations of paintings rather than works that utilized the unique, faceted qualities of the medium. This loss of the "craftsman-artist" connection, where the creator no longer puts their "thumb on every tessera," is often cited as a reason for the dry character found in later mosaic works.12