In Roman times, mosaics were a popular way for wealthy elites to decorate their private villas and show off their status. Throughout our time in Italy, we have seen numerous examples of mosaics and have gotten a taste of how prevalent they were in the lives of the elite. The mosaic collection at the Palazzo Massimo in Rome was particularly effective in demonstrating not only the huge variety of mosaics but how elites used them ostentatiously to decorate their homes.

Looking at this collection, you can’t help but imagine the time and the craftsmanship required to lay hundreds of tiny square stone tesserae in each of these pieces. The intricacies of every piece are astounding, especially ones that appear to have used even smaller tesserae to create a shading effect. At the same time, you can also imagine the excitement of owners choosing their designs, colors, portraits they wanted to display, and getting to show off their unique mosaics to their guests.

Mosaic of Dionysus, Palazzo Massimo, taken June 17th 2018

Mosaic of Pan, Palazzo Massimo, taken June 17th 2018

Satyr Mosaic, Palazzo Massimo, taken June 17th 2018

Much like modern day fashion, the popular style of mosaics evolved over time, from black and white geometric patterns to realistic portraits of people, animals, and everyday life. The collection at the Palazzo Massimo fully captured this range, though the mosaics pictured above stood out to me. The mosaic of Dionysus automatically caught my eye because its impressive use of shading. This technique, opus verticulatum, used smaller tesserae and was intended to mimic the realistic look of a wall painting [1]. Each of these mosaics were also impressive for their use of blue and green colors. The mosaics of Pan and the satyr are actually both part of a larger mosaic that uses teal tesserae, which are not featured in any other mosaic in the collection. Specially colored tesserae were made out of glass and had to be imported, which made them much more expensive than traditional black and white tesserae that could be cut from stone or marble within the country [1]. Clearly, the owner of these mosaics wanted to make known their access to prestige materials.

These mosaics also depict figures that originate from Greek mythology. As we have learned throughout the course, the Greeks had a major influence on both the Romans and the Etruscans, starting with their establishment of colonies in Italy around the 8^th c. BC. Trade around the Mediterranean was the major catalyst for the exchange of cultural ideas. The Romans highly admired the Greeks and infused many of their ideas into their culture. This is visible especially in Roman art and architecture. Roman mosaics probably evolved from Greek Hellenistic style mosaics. Greek mythology was also adopted by the Romans, though most gods and heroes were given Latin names. The adoption of Greek gods was an easy transition, mostly because Italic peoples did not have definite personified gods prior to this [2]. The god Dionysus, called Bacchus by the Romans, is pictured in the first mosaic [3]. He is known as a god of the earth, wine, ecstasy, and festivity [2]. Dionysus was a popular god to be depicted in Roman art, and it would make sense to find his depiction in a Roman villa, simultaneously used for production and leisure. In the second mosaic, Pan, known as the shepherd’s god, was often depicted with horns and goat’s feet and played a flute of reeds [2]. Satyrs were mythical creatures of the wild and like Pan, they also had goat features. Satyrs were often depicted with Dionysus [2].

Mosaic in D2, taken June 21st 2018

Mosaic in D2, taken June 5th 2018

Seeing the mosaics at Palazzo Massimo were especially helpful in contextualizing the mosaics we have been finding at our site. In trench D2, where the bathhouse was, we have found many single pieces of black and white tesserae, as well as a large intact piece still connected at the lower end of our trench. We hope that we have found enough of the mosaic intact so that a pattern maybe recreated in the future, but much of the pre-existing mosaic has been disturbed by extensive plowing in the area. During the past week in trench A6 and A7, we also have found blue glass pieces of tesserae laid in mortar, for wall decoration. This was a surprising find and shows that the owner of the villa had enough wealth to import these colors.

Bibliography

[1] Cartwright, Mark. “Roman Mosaics.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, 14 June 2013.

[2] Hamilton, Edith. “Mythology Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes.” Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, Anniversary addition, 2017.

[3] The editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. “Dionysus Greek Mythology.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2018.