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Marine mosaic (central panel of three panels from a floor)

Unknown200 - 230

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Boston, MA, United States

Mosaics covered the floors of houses belonging to the well-to-do throughout the ancient Mediterranean, especially in Roman times, and thousands of these pavements survive. Many inventive compositions, both figural and ornamental, were developed to complement the functions and layouts of the rooms they occupied. This mosaic is a three-part composition that once decorated a courtyard in a third-century residence, the so-called House of the Drinking Contest, near the port of Antioch-on-the-Orontes. Antioch was a great metropolis whose inhabitants, belonging to the Hellenized culture of Syria, enjoyed a privileged lifestyle similar to those of their wealthy counterparts throughout the Roman Empire.

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  • Title: Marine mosaic (central panel of three panels from a floor)
  • Creator: Unknown
  • Date Created: 200 - 230
  • Physical Dimensions: w2870 x h2915 mm
  • Type: Mosaics
  • Rights: Museum purchase and conservation with funds donated by George D. and Margo Behrakis, The Getty Foundation, Jane's Trust, John F. Cogan, Jr. and Mary L. Cornille, Daphne and George Hatsopoulos, the Estate of Dr. Harold Amos, Peter and Widgie Aldrich, Mrs. I. W. Colburn, Mary B. Comstock, The Hellenic Women's Club, Inc., an anonymous donor, Katherine R. Kirk, Peter Vlachos, Mrs. James Evans Ladd, Irene and Grier Merwin, Suzanne R. Dworsky, Mr. and Mrs. Robert K. Faulkner, Francis J. Jackson and Nancy M. McMahon, Meg Holmes Robbins, Otis Norcross Fund, Helen and Alice Colburn Fund, Arthur Tracy Cabot Fund, Charles Amos Cummings Fund, and by exchange from the John Wheelock Elliot and John Morse Elliot Fund, Henry Lillie Pierce Fund, Benjamin Pierce Cheney Donation, Bequest of Benjamin Rowland, Jr., Gift of a "class of young ladies," Museum purchase by contribution, Gift of Barbara Deering Danielson, General Funds, William Sturgis Bigelow Collection, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. G. W. Wales, Gift of Paul E. Manheim, Bequest of Mrs. May Sheppard Jordan, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William de Forest Thomson, Francis Bartlett Donation, Gift of James Howe Proctor, Gift of Benjamin W. Crowninshield, Gift of the Estate of Dana Estes, Gift of Thomas Gold Appleton, Gift of Edward Perry Warren, Gift of an anonymous donor, Gift of Francis Amory, Gift of J. J. Dixwell, Gift of Edward Austin, Gift of Edward Robinson, Gift of Horace L. Mayer, Everett Fund, Gift of the Misses Norton, Gift of the Misses Amy and Clara Curtis, Gift of Charles C. Perkins, Gift of Mrs. Walter Scott Fitz, Gift of Harold Murdock in memory of his brother, Rear-Admiral J. B. Murdock, Gift of the Estate of Alfred Greenough, and Gift of Edward Southworth Hawes. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. All Rights Reserved.
  • External Link: http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/marine-mosaic-central-panel-of-three-panels-from-a-floor-359049
  • Medium: Mosaic (stone and glass tesserae)
  • Period, era, dynasty, reign: Imperial Period
  • City, state, country: Seleucia Pieria (port city of Antioch), Hatay (formerly province of Syria), Turkey
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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