A ROMAN MARBLE MOSAIC PANEL

CIRCA 3RD-4TH CENTURY A.D.

Details

A ROMAN MARBLE MOSAIC PANEL
CIRCA 3RD-4TH CENTURY A.D.
The multicolored composition on a cream ground, preserving several species of marine life swimming in all directions, including a large dolphin, an octopus, several varieties of striped and solid fish, conch shells, and an eel, some fish pursuing prey, two with smaller fish clenched in their jaws
87 in. (221 cm.) high x 70½ in. (193.8 cm.) wide

Provenance

European Private Collection, 1975.

Lot Essay

There is a long tradition in the Classical world of mosaics representing marine life. There are several earlier examples preserved from Pompeii, of which Dunbabin notes (Mosaics of the Greek and Roman World, p. 47), "They illustrate the interest of the Hellenistic artists in precise zoographical observation; their popularity also attests to the taste for live exotic fish fashionable in the fish-ponds of late Republican nobles, echoed at least in image by the Pompeian house-owners." For an example closer in style to the present piece see p. 190 in Cimok, ed., Antioch Mosaics.

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