Roman Unswept Floor Mosaic

At the time there were two things bothering me.

Roman unswept floor mosaic. Sosos laid at pergamon what is called the asarotos oikos or unswept room because on the pavement was represented. This is a video showing the unswept floor mosaic on exhibit at the vatican museum. The latter was discovered in 1737 during an excavation of hadrian s villa in tivoli italy. First what do we know about the mosaic.

The other mosaic for which sosus is and then was very admired was doves drinking from a bowl below. The brighon mosaic with its cherry stems is of course a direct reference to the asaraton or unswept floor motif from roman times. There is a even a specific greek term for this asaroton. A detail of the unswept floor mosaic at the vatican museum.

This depicts the floor of a room covered with the remains of a feast including fish fruit and other fragments of food. The idea is to give the appearance of real objects littering a floor as a kind of trompe l oeil effect. The alexander mosaic dating from circa 100 bc is a roman floor mosaic originally from the house of the faun in pompeii that is allegedly an imitation of apelles painting. The unswept floor copy of the mosaic done by sosus.

Pliny mentions this trompe l oeil optical illusion in his natural history xxxvi 184. The latter was discovered in 1737 during an excavation of hadrian s villa in tivoli italy. The unswept floor is a now lost mosaic by the 2nd century bc mosaicist sosus of pergamon. As described by pliny it is a floor mosaic which depicted the leftovers of a meal on a floor.

A mosaic from hadrian s villa now in the capitoline museums depicts a group of doves on a round bowl. The discovery of an ancient roman mosaic duration. The mosaic implies a feast so lavish that if it were actually served it might have been illegal a violation of roman sumptuary laws which capped how much a host could spend on any one banquet. The date of the mosaic fluctuates between the 3rd century bc and late 4th century very soon after the battles would have taken place.

Doves drinking from a bowl. The met 109 712 views. Two of his famous mosaics include the unswept floor and doves drinking from a bowl. The mosaic measures 5 82 by 3 13.

The original is a simple but brilliant idea. In a previous post about ancient roman dining habits tossing bones shells and scraps on the floor and shared a mosaic that records this practice in exquisite detail.