Emperor Hadrian's Mosaic of the Doves

lire en Francais

 

  

The Capitoline Mosaic of the Doves was discovered in 1737 during archaeological excavations of Emperor Hadrian’s Villa.

The Doves Mosaic unearthed in 1737 at Hadrian's Villa.

While some scholars believe this beauty is the actual Dove Mosaic built by the famous 2nd century BC Sosus of Pergamon and mentioned by Pliny in his Natural History, others believe it to be a 2nd century AD copy of it made for Hadrian.

Numerous copies were made of this mosaic, even into late antiquity. In addition to Tivoli, these have been found at Delos; at Pompeii and Capua...

Doves Mosaic unearthed in Pompeii 1st century BC

In other parts of the Empire and in the Christian mausoleums of Santa Costanza in Rome and Galla Placidia in Ravenna. 

Doves Mosaic with svastika borders in Malta, 1st century.

Doves Mosaic from Ostia Antica, 1st Century BC

  

Doves Mosaic - Mausoleo of Galla Placidia, 5th Century AD

I consider the finest of all to be the emblema discovered at Hadrian’s Villa, made of thousands of very small tesserae - 2 to 3 mm squares, a technique named  opus vermiculatum, by far the most sophisticated mosaic technique.

A fragment of the outside border of this mosaic is displayed at the Musee d'Arles Antique this summer. 

Fragment from the border of the Capitoline Doves mosaic

The tesserae used to build this border were no bigger than 3 mm (0.11"). Usually this size of tessera was only used for the center piece - the emblema, and regular Opus Tessellatum built from bigger tesserae was used for the borders. Hadrian was a protector of the Arts. Those kind of Chef d'Oeuvre were only assembled in a couple of very specialized workshops of the Empire by very highly skilled craftsmen.

 

Those variations of a same pattern are an other example of the way ancient musivarii worked. I believe they had  books or scrolls of models for the architets or patrons to chose from. In some cases, several patterns were mixed in a same mosaic (I will write something later about the parrot you can see in the lower right corner of the piece from Ostia...)

One reason why I am visiting many sites and museums in Europe is that I am putting together a library of geometric patterns used by the Romans. This is taking quite some time as those patterns are anything but simple. They are, however, gorgeous, and they bring to any center piece the same depth a vibrant frame brings to a painting. 

I am a French mosaicist

living in Headland, Alabama, USA.

My Art is about inspiring people.

You can see some of my work at www.mosaicblues.com

You can contact me either by phone 

at (334) 798 1639 or by email at 

frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com

You can also subscribe to my

MosaicBlues Newsletter