Symbols of Bacchus as God of Wine and the Theater

Roman 3rd Centuryc. 200/225 A.D.

Details

Title: Symbols of Bacchus as God of Wine and the Theater
Creator: Roman 3rd Century
Date Created: c. 200/225 A.D.
Physical Dimensions: overall: 178.4 x 254.7 cm (70 1/4 x 100 1/4 in.)
Provenance: Discovered 1941 or 1942 in El Jem, Tunisia; possibly on deposit at the Alaoui Museum (Musée National du Bardo), Tunis, before 1961;[1] presented 4 May 1961 to the National Gallery of Art by Habib Bourguiba, president of the Tunisian Republic. [1] Inaugurated in 1888 as the Alaoui Museum in the Bardo palace, this institution was renamed the Musée National du Bardo in 1956, when Tunisia became independent. See Mohammed Yacoub, _Musée du Bardo; Musée Antique_ (Tunis, 1970): 5. An information sheet from the Tunisian Embassy, dated 3 May 1961, in NGA curatorial files, refers to the mosaic as "from the Alaoui Museum." Margaret A. Alexander has found that it was never accessioned there and that the museum has no record of ever owning it. Conceivably it may once have been on deposit there; a postcard in Professor Alexander's collection, of unknown date, reproduces a detail of the ivy-crowned mask on the right side of the Washington mosaic with the caption "MUSEE NATIONAL DU BARDO/ 59-Masque de Silène/ (Mosaïque El-Djem)."
Medium: mosaic, marble, and glass

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