Orpheus mosaics are found throughout the Roman Empire, normally in large Roman villas. The scene normally shown is Orpheus playing his lyre, and attracting birds and animals of many species to gather around him. Orpheus was a popular subject in classical art, and was also used in Early Christian art as a symbol for Christ. [2]
The standard depiction in Roman mosaic scenes (for the Romano-British variant see below) shows him seated and playing a lyre or cithara, wearing a Phrygian cap, often beside a tree, and includes many animals drawn and pacified by his playing. The fox was considered Orpheus's special animal and may be placed beside him. In large examples the animals spread to occupy the whole floor of a room. Titles such as Orpheus Charming/Taming the Beasts may be used. [3] Usually the whole scene occupies the same space, but sometimes Orpheus and the animals are each in compartments separated by borders with geometrical decoration. In such cases the compartments with animals are very similar to those in other mosaics with no central figure. An alternative composition shows Dionysus (Bacchus) as the central figure, surrounded by animals, more lively than those around Orpheus.
An example of the usual composition with animals in the 6th-century Gaza synagogue is identified as David by an inscription in Hebrew, and has added royal attributes. [4] Another adaptation is a Christian mosaic of Adam giving names to the animals (Genesis 2: 19–20) in a church of around 486–502 in Apamea, Syria. [5] Some of the mosaics seem to relate to the rather elusive philosophical or religious doctrines of Orphism. [6]
In Byzantine mosaic large scenes with animals tended to be hunting scenes (one of the largest being again at Apamea). These are, at least initially, drawn from the popular venatio ("hunting") displays in the amphitheatres, where a variety of exotic beasts were released to fight and be killed. [7] Despite the contrast in atmosphere, the Berlin mosaic from a house in Miletus manages to combine both a venatio and an Orpheus with animals in its two parts. [8] An arena programme recorded by Martial combined an acted-out scene of Orpheus charming the animals with the punishment of criminals by damnatio ad bestias . [9]
In what appears to be a unique feature of Orpheus mosaics from Roman Britain, the animals may be arranged parading in a circle around him, feet facing out, so that some are the right way up whatever angle the floor is seen from; nine examples are known. [10] The subject is found, for example, in Woodchester in England, the second largest of its kind in Europe and one of the most intricate. It dates to c. AD 325 and was re-discovered by Gloucestershire-born antiquarian Samuel Lysons in 1793. It has been uncovered seven times since 1880, [11] the last time in 1973, but there are no plans to reveal it again. [12]
Other English examples are at Littlecote Roman Villa, [13] Brading Roman Villa, [14] and the Corinium Museum. [15] Another, from Newton St Loe, is now in Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, but between 1841 and 1851 had been moved to Keynsham railway station, and set in a floor there. [16] The Corinium (that is, modern Cirencester) example gives its name to the "Corinium Orpheus School" of Romano-British mosaic artists. [17] The Littlecote mosaic in particular, which seems to have been added to a room used as some kind of private space for religious cult, has been suggested as evidencing a syncretic cult of Orpheus, Apollo and Bacchus. [18]
There are two other circular Orpheus mosaics, in Volubilis in present-day Morocco, and Mérida in Spain, but the compositions are different. [19]
A large example takes up all the floor of a room in the Villa Romana del Casale, Piazza Armerina, Sicily, one of the finest sites for mosaics. Other notable examples are in Leptis Magna in Libya (in situ), [20] and in Palermo, Arles, the Musée gallo-romain in Saint-Romain-en-Gal Vienne, Perugia and the Bardo National Museum (Tunis). A new Orpheus mosaic has recently been found in Prusias ad Hypium, near present-day Duzce in Turkey.
The example in Zaragoza, now in the museum, came from the "Casa de Orfeo", which was located next to the Roman walls near the central market in Caesaraugusta, as the city was called. Unusually, the figure of Orpheus is surrounded by birds only, with a single snake, while below only big cats are shown.
A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly popular in the Ancient Roman world.
Bonus Eventus was a divine personification in ancient Roman religion. The Late Republican scholar Varro lists him as one of the twelve deities who presided over agriculture, paired with Lympha, the goddess who influenced the water supply. The original function of Bonus Eventus may have been agricultural, but during the Imperial era, he represents a more general concept of success and was among the numerous abstractions who appeared as icons on Roman coins.
There are many Roman sites in Great Britain that are open to the public. There are also many sites that do not require special access, including Roman roads, and sites that have not been uncovered.
Cirencester is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, 80 miles (130 km) west of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames. It is the eighth largest settlement in Gloucestershire and the largest town within the Cotswolds. It is the home of the Royal Agricultural University, the oldest agricultural college in the English-speaking world, founded in 1840. The town had a population of 20,229 in 2021.
The art of Ancient Rome, and the territories of its Republic and later Empire, includes architecture, painting, sculpture and mosaic work. Luxury objects in metal-work, gem engraving, ivory carvings, and glass are sometimes considered to be minor forms of Roman art, although they were not considered as such at the time. Sculpture was perhaps considered as the highest form of art by Romans, but figure painting was also highly regarded. A very large body of sculpture has survived from about the 1st century BC onward, though very little from before, but very little painting remains, and probably nothing that a contemporary would have considered to be of the highest quality.
The Villa Romana del Casale is a large and elaborate Roman villa or palace located about 3 km from the town of Piazza Armerina, Sicily. Excavations have revealed Roman mosaics which, according to the Grove Dictionary of Art, are the richest, largest and most varied collection that remains, for which the site was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. The villa and its artwork date to the early 4th century AD.
Brading Roman Villa was a Roman courtyard villa which has been excavated and put on public display in Brading on the Isle of Wight.
Littlecote Roman Villa is an extensive and exceptional Roman villa, with associated religious complex, at Littlecote Park just over a mile west of Hungerford, Berkshire. It has been excavated and is on display to the public in the grounds of the estate.
Corinium Dobunnorum was the Romano-British settlement at Cirencester in the present-day English county of Gloucestershire. Its 2nd-century walls enclosed the second-largest area of a city in Roman Britain. It was the tribal capital of the Dobunni and is usually thought to have been the capital of the Diocletian-era province of Britannia Prima.
The Lycurgus Cup is a Roman glass 4th-century cage cup made of a dichroic glass, which shows a different colour depending on whether or not light is passing through it: red when lit from behind and green when lit from in front. It is the only complete Roman glass object made from this type of glass, and the one exhibiting the most impressive change in colour; it has been described as "the most spectacular glass of the period, fittingly decorated, which we know to have existed".
Italy has the richest concentration of Late Antique and medieval mosaics in the world. Although the art style is especially associated with Byzantine art and many Italian mosaics were probably made by imported Greek-speaking artists and craftsmen, there are surprisingly few significant mosaics remaining in the core Byzantine territories. This is especially true before the Byzantine Iconoclasm of the 8th century.
Gino Vinicio Gentili was an Italian archaeologist.
A Roman mosaic is a mosaic made during the Roman period, throughout the Roman Republic and later Empire. Mosaics were used in a variety of private and public buildings, on both floors and walls, though they competed with cheaper frescos for the latter. They were highly influenced by earlier and contemporary Hellenistic Greek mosaics, and often included famous figures from history and mythology, such as Alexander the Great in the Alexander Mosaic.
The Zliten mosaic is a Roman floor mosaic from about the 2nd century AD, found in the town of Zliten in Libya, on the east coast of Leptis Magna. The mosaic was discovered by the Italian archaeologist Salvatore Aurigemma in 1913 and is now on display at The Archaeological Museum of Tripoli. It depicts gladiatorial contests, animal hunts, and scenes from everyday life.
The Villa Romana del Tellaro is a large, elaborate Roman villa dating from the late Roman Empire.
The Villa Romana di Patti is a large and elaborate Roman villa located in the comune of Patti in the province of Messina on Sicily.
The Magerius Mosaic is a 3rd-century Roman mosaic discovered in 1966 in the Tunisian village of Smirat and presently displayed in the Sousse Archaeological Museum. The mosaic presumably decorated a country villa belonging to a man named Magerius.
The Villa of Gerace is a Roman villa located near Enna along provincial road 78 at the Rastello-Ramata junction, on the Fontanazza estate, Sicily.
The mosaics of Delos are a significant body of ancient Greek mosaic art. Most of the surviving mosaics from Delos, Greece, an island in the Cyclades, date to the last half of the 2nd century BC and early 1st century BC, during the Hellenistic period and beginning of the Roman period of Greece. Hellenistic mosaics were no longer produced after roughly 69 BC, due to warfare with the Kingdom of Pontus and the subsequently abrupt decline of the island's population and position as a major trading center. Among Hellenistic Greek archaeological sites, Delos contains one of the highest concentrations of surviving mosaic artworks. Approximately half of all surviving tessellated Greek mosaics from the Hellenistic period come from Delos.
Horkstow Roman villa is a Roman villa and scheduled monument in Horkstow, North Lincolnshire. It was discovered in 1797 when labourers found a large floor mosaic. A geophysical survey of the site in 1987 identified structural features between the site of the mosaic and the nearby Horkstow Hall, though the full layout of the villa has not yet been discovered.