AN EARLY JEWISH MARBLE AND GLASS MOSAIC PANEL

LATE ROMAN PERIOD, CIRCA 4TH CENTURY A.D.

Details

AN EARLY JEWISH MARBLE AND GLASS MOSAIC PANEL
LATE ROMAN PERIOD, CIRCA 4TH CENTURY A.D.
Preserving a section of a mosaic floor, likely from a synagogue, with a seven-branched menorah on a tripod base to the left, flames burning at the end of each arm, and a Torah shrine to the right depicted as a pedimented aedicula with two columns, a palmette in the pediment, raised up on a stepped plinth, a curtain embroidered with florals protecting the Torah behind, a lulav, etrog, shofar and incense shovel in the field
62 5/16 x 50¾ in. (158.3 x 128.9 cm.)

Provenance

with Dr. Elie Borowski.
with Nina Borowski, Paris.
French Private Collection.

Lot Essay

This fragmentary panel likely once had a second menorah to the right of the Torah shrine. Several similar examples are known from Late Roman and Byzantine Period synagogues, mostly in Israel. See for example fig. 81, p. 199 and no. 148, p. 267 in Treasures of the Holy Land, Ancient Art from the Israel Museum.

More from Antiquities

View All