#Art #history #mosaic #opussectile #Roma
Two beautiful opus sectile mosaics. Capitol Museum. Roma

OPUS SECTILE FLOOR, C. 300 CE. VITTORIANO This marvellous floor in opus sectile was discovered in 1903, "somewhat damaged by fire", during clearance work in piazza Venezia for the main staircase of the monument to the first king of united Italy, Vittorio Emanuele II. Its large central emblema has a design of scales in the four marbles called the "Neronian quadrichromy": serpentino, porphyry, giallo antico, and pavonazzetto, with the usual pairing of serpentino with giallo antico and of porphyry with pavonazzetto. However, the wide band of floor around the central panel is particularly complex, with four horns in serpentino spinning outward from circles of porphyry and serpentino, separated by larger circles in pavonazzetto containing undulating cross-like shapes in giallo antico. The closest comparison is to the floor of the Senate not far away. But this design is unique. We know nothing of the building from which this was extracted, apparently without any archaeological notes or drawings, but the initial report does mention an adjacent room with a similar floor whose location and fate are unknown.

#MosaicMonday takes us deep into the #Vittoriano in #Rome to discover a rarely-seen and spectacular late antique #opussectile floor from an unknown building in the southern part of piazza #Venezia. #AncientBluesky 🏺

FRESCO FRAGMENT FROM THE NORTHERN APSIDAL CHAPEL IN THE PANTHEON, C12-C13. PANTHEON, LAPIDARIUM This is one of the very few traces of the medieval decoration of the Pantheon that survives. Found during works for the tomb of king Umberto I in 1900, it hints at the very different appearance of the building in the Middle Ages. The lower register, worn and almost indecipherable, seems to show a cityscape, with a yellow house with a pitched roof at left, and some kind of structure at right. The painted frame in red suggests a complex division of the wall into different pictorial spaces. The upper register has an interesting geometric design of overlapping lozenges, with the overlaps in black but the rest of the lozenges in faded green or red. This design is familiar from ancient mosaics and opus sectile, and here expresses a continuity between the lost Rome of antiquity and the Rome of the papacy.

For #FrescoFriday this week, which has been focused on the #Pantheon in #Rome, here's a #fresco fragment from around 1200, which once decorated the eastern curved chapel. It has an intriguing scene of roofed houses below a complex #geometric band that imitates #opussectile work. #AncientBluesky 🏺

GEOMETRIC FLOOR IN OPUS SECTILE, C4 CE. ARCHAEOLOGICAL AREA OF THE OSPEDALE DI S. GIOVANNI The discovery of two statue bases naming L. Licinius Sura give us the identity of the owner of a vast domus on the Caelian hill near the property of the Plautii Laterani, of a similar date, which gave the toponym "Lateran" to the cathedral of Rome. Sura was a general under the emperor Tiberius and an ancestor of the Licinius Sura who was a close friend (lover?) of the early C2 emperor Trajan. The latter Licinius Sura had a different house on the slope of the Aventine. The Lateran domus of the Licinii Surae had extensive gardens making use of the huge amount of aqueduct water that crossed the area, and a gigantic cistern remains to show part of the property's hydraulic work. This floor in serpentino, porphyry, giallo antico, and other marbles was found in a room adjoining the garden.

#MosaicMonday takes us back to the #Lateran quarter in #Rome, where the remains of a shattered #opussectile floor from the C4 CE show the longevity of the huge #domus of L. #Licinius #Sura, a general of #Tiberius in the early C1 CE. #AncientBluesky 🏺

OPUS SECTILE FLOOR, 385-388 CE. MUSEO DELLE CIVILTÀ This extraordinary opus sectile pavement only finds comparisons in the House of Cupid and Psyche in Ostia and in the Diocletianic opus sectile floor of the Curia Senatus, which has been heavily restored. Here we have a background of giallo antico and a complex pattern of polygonal shapes with three recurrent themes, the circle, the four-pointed star, and the strange pelta or C-shaped shield. At the centre of each four-pointed star is a circle of alternating porphyry and serpentino set inside a round frame, or a circle of those marbles inset with a square of giallo antico or brecciated white marble. Within the octagons created between the stars, on a background of pavonazzetto, are circles framed with porphyry, with four peltæ in serpentino. This is a sophisticated and expensive floor, and the room must have had a public or ceremonial function.

#MosaicMonday takes us back to the #MuseodelleCiviltà in #Rome, this time to look at the dazzling #opussectile floor of the #domus of #PortaMarina from #OstiaAntica, 385-388 CE. Its complex #geometric design makes it the most perfect floor of its kind in #LateAntiquity. #AncientBluesky 🏺

This delightful cephalopod in giallo antico was found in a pile of similar loose pieces of cut stone on the floor of the opus sectile hall of the domus of Porta Marina. Evidently they had never been installed, as they had no trace of the adhesive material (bitumen) that held such pieces to the wall. Was this house abandoned before it was finished, or did the design plans change midway? It is certainly hard to place this octopus in the decorative program of the room. On the tentacles, the suckers are clearly indicated, and there are two eyes on the main body, with a rather irregularly inscribed line within the main body, outlining most of it but creating a concave curve between the eyes, giving this octopus a worried frown.

Floating up from the darkness of late antiquity is this #opussectile #octopus from the #domus of #PortaMarina in #OstiaAntica, now in the #MuseodelleCiviltà in #Rome. This sea creature in giallo antico comes from somewhere in the famous opus sectile room, dating from 385-388 CE. #MosaicMonday 🏺

Two partial faces in opus sectile, made in a very simple, almost childlike style, with round open eyes in white marble, open mouths without lips (missing or never made) and skin in giallo antico. They seem to be watching the approaching disaster, whether by sea or by earthquake, that shattered the structure possibly even before it was finished.

#MosaicMonday brings us to the #MuseodelleCiviltà in #Rome for these two faces in #opussectile from the #domus of #PortaMarina in #OstiaAntica, dating to 385-388 CE. This splendid house had a mysteriously short life, and these faces seem to be reacting to imminent destruction. #AncientBluesky 🏺

OPUS SECTILE OF THE DOMUS OF PORTA MARINA, 385-388 CE. MUSEO DELLE CIVILTÀ This central alcove of the domus of Porta Marina is decorated in an extraordinary, indeed unique way. Instead of the figurative and geometric designs of the larger part of the hall, this area, which was found without a floor, has two registers. The lower one is composed of a small diagonal grid of mosaic that resembles a mosaic pavement without a discernable pattern. The upper, larger register imitates in opus sectile a brick structure with four arches at centre on the back wall flanked by two flat-topped sections. Behind, within, above, and below the giallo antico "brick" is a backdrop of marble "opus reticulatum", a style of construction that had ceased to be used long before this was made. This strange wall reminds me irresistibly of the opus mixtum tombs outside Porta Romana at the other end of Ostia's Decumanus Maximus. In the foreground is the magnificent pavement of the main hall.

#MosaicMonday once again draws us back to the #MuseodelleCiviltà in the #EUR in the south of #Rome to marvel at the #domus of #PortaMarina from #OstiaAntica, where a central alcove imitates humble brick and #tufo, complete with shadows, in costly #opussectile. #AncientBluesky 🏺

OPUS SECTILE OF THE DOMUS OF PORTA MARINA, 385-388 CE. MUSEO DELLE CIVILTÀ This is the most magnificent interior from late-antique Ostia. The room is divided into two parts, with the smaller part, a large alcove, visible at far right. The main part of the hall has a surviving floor, which repeats the geometric themes of the wall, particularly an almost obsessive use of peltæ-like shapes, but these are fancier than ordinary peltæ, which originally represented the shields of the barbarian Amazons. The north wall is separated from the alcove by a huge acanthus-scrolled pilaster. The lowest register of the wall is made of large panels of giallo antico with complex frames separated by smaller panels in serpentino and giallo antico. Above this is a register which picks up the acanthus-scroll theme of the pilasters. The next register up, very fragmentary, shows large scenes of tigers attacking animals, in this case a stag, and a further register, almost nonexistent, has circles and geometric shapes.

#MosaicMonday takes us back to the #MuseodelleCiviltà in the #EUR, and to the breathtaking #opussectile hall of the #domus of #PortaMarina in #OstiaAntica, to get an overall view of the north wall. This is #LateAntiquity at its most refined, a real masterpiece of stonework. #AncientBluesky 🏺

OPUS SECTILE OF THE DOMUS OF PORTA MARINA, 385-388 CE. MUSEO DELLE CIVILTÀ This astonishing opus sectile work, of which we see only a detail here, comes from a building outside Porta Marina, the Sea Gate of Ostia Antica, and closes off the space between the end of the Decumanus Maximus, the main east-west street of the city, and the ancient shore. With the front door open, it was probably possible to see the beach across a courtyard. This room north of the entrance opens onto the courtyard peristyle. It was discovered in 1942 but excavations only ended in 1962. Most of the dazzling marble decoration had to be pieced together as it was found on the floor. Here we see at centre an image of Christ, with a halo and brown beard (! Early for the beard) making a gesture of benediction. On panels to either side there are two peltæ-like curved forms, and the register above has a marvellous vegetal scroll in serpentino; the lowest register shows large framed panels in giallo antico.

#MosaicMonday for the next few weeks will be obsessing over the incredible #opussectile room of #PortaMarina, from the very edge of #OstiaAntica, though the room is now hidden away in the former Museo dell'Alto Medioevo in the #EUR. #Christ takes centre stage on the south wall. #AncientBluesky 🏺

POLYCHROME BORDER MOSAIC, 325-350 CE. HOUSE OF CUPID AND PSYCHE, OSTIA The entrance vestibule to this richly-decorated C4 domus is missing any trace of its central mosaic, which probably existed because it has this remaining trace of a border. This house is famous for its opus sectile pavements and for the statue of the embracing children Cupid and Psyche, but this is one of the only polychrome mosaics left in Ostia Antica. It's somewhat rough work in three registers, with signs of bad repairs. Toward the bottom is a woven guilloche pattern of which very little remains, then a black border, and at top the outer edge has a charming wave pattern in black and white mosaic. Between the two is the final register, a repetitive floral pattern with pink and yellow tesserae petals growing toward the left from a yellow vine, which is intertwined with a black one to create an overlapping pattern of circles.

#MosaicMonday invites us to enter the beautiful #HouseofCupidandPsyche in #OstiaAntica, built on #Hadrian-era structures. This is one of the few remaining examples of #mosaic #polychromy in the city, but step in and you'll find the staggering #opussectile floors of the #domus.

The House of the Ephebe, named for a bronze statue with a candelabrum, features rare opus sectile flooring—marble and glass from across the Empire—and vivid Fourth Style frescoes.
Photo: March 25, Pompeii
#Pompeii #OpusSectile #RomanArt #Fresco #Triclinium

PAVEMENT IN OPUS SECTILE, C1 CE. TEMPLUM PACIS, CULT HALL The discovery of the near-intact pavement of the cult hall of the Temple of Peace in 2005-2007 was an astonishing revelation. Vespasian's construction of this site of gardens and fountains with a sacred purpose was also a way of giving back to the people the magnificent Greek statues appropriated by Nero to decorate his private house, the Domus Aurea, restoring their public and sacred nature. In the main hall, a large podium visible at lower left raised up the statue of Pax, which has completely disappeared. The pavement, a grid pattern of pavonazzetto containing a background of giallo antico and rotae of alternating pavonazzetto with a border of porphyry and grey granite, only began to be despoiled in 526 with the conversion of a hall of the complex into the church of SS. Cosma e Damiano: one of the missing granite rotae from this pavement can still be seen in the lower church. In the C6 at least ten burials were made in the garden part of the Templum. The surviving cult hall, stripped of its cult statue of Pax set up by Vespasian to mark the end of the turmoil of the Year of the Four Emperors, may have been turned into the medical school set up in the Templum that is mentioned by Procopius in his De Bello Gothico. In any case spoliation of the Templum Pacis only began seriously in the C9, lasting until the C13.

#MosaicMonday brings us not #mosaic but #opussectile from the cult hall of the Templum Pacis, built by #Vespasian as a place of contemplation off the busy #ForumTransitorium. The #pavement was restored under the #Severans. In late antiquity the hall was still used, perhaps as a medical school.

OPUS SECTILE WALL DECORATION, C5. LATERAN BAPTISTERY This extraordinary opus sectile decoration, though only surviving in part, probably dates from the pontificate of Hilarus (461-468), who completed the renovations to the Constantinian baptistery begun by pope Sixtus III (432-440). The whole wall must have been covered by this highly refined and delicate stone inlay, which formed an impressive front wall of the baptistery proper when entered from the porch with its porphyry columns (behind us). The now-lost roundels of the two similar panels were probably of rosso antico like the red inlay of the rest of the work, alternating with panels containing rectangles of serpentino, one of which survives. The colour palette is very simple: green, red, and white, the white forming a kind of filigree into which the other two colours are set: their vegetal curlicues imply the fruitfulness of the second birth that was baptism.

#MosaicMonday in the #LateranBaptistery offers us, among many beautiful examples of #mosaic work, this extremely rare survival of late-antique #opussectile, one of the most magnificent in #Rome, in the imperial colours of purple and green.