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Ancient Roman Mosaics

The art of ancient roman mosaics was essentially inherited through southern Italy from Greece and developed to a high degree. The Greeks themselves probably learned of this art from the Orient around the same period in which Rome was founded (8^th Century BC).

At first mosaic work was restricted to the laying of coloured pebbles in a more or less uniform manner. By breaking the pebbles a flatter surface could be achieved and by the fourth century BC the individual pieces were refined to the cubes we are accustomed to. By the second century BC coloured mosaics reached their technical perfection in central Italy.

At their best, mosaics rivaled painting in terms of illusionary tromp-l'oeuil results. The level of detail and finesse achieved was extraordinary and the amount of work required to achieve high quality could make their cost quite prohibitive. The great benefit of course was the greater durability and vibrancy of colour, so much so that in many cases there will be little left of an excavated villa but the mosaic on the floor may well be close to intact.

Roman black and white mosaic of a skeleton A decorative pattern on a shop floor would generally be two tone (black and white). The pieces were called tessellae or tesserae and their size could differ even within the same mosaic. Faster execution implied larger, more simple, patterns and of course, larger pieces. The white tesserae would be made of (white) marble whilst the black would be of basalt - the same volcanic lava rock used in the construction of Roman roads such as the Appian way.

The shape of the tesserae depended on the shapes to be described within the mosaic. A simple geometric pattern made up of essentially straight lines and rectangular forms would only require tesserae of square or rectangular section. A more complex pattern or image naturally required the shape of the pieces to vary so that they might be laid out in order to follow the form they described rather than cut across it.

Complexity was at its greatest when the image of the mosaic was in colour(s). In this case the tesserae would not only have to describe form but also the pattern of different tonal/colour shades within this form. The finest of effects would be achieved with the smallest of tesserae in pretty much the same way that a computer screen can give a more or less perfect image according to the number and size of the pixels per square inch it is capable of displaying. In the most extreme of cases this could require as many as 300 tesserae per square inch (50 per square centimeter) and countless numbers of different coloured marbles, stones and glass, each piece being cut on site.

The range of colours available depended on the range of marbles and coloured stones available. Coloured glass paste could also be used as a material and was generally employed, together with marble, in works of higher prestige. Often the materials used were recycled, especially in later periods of the empire when the cost of marbles and loss of power made them difficult to obtain.

We can therefore imagine the vast range of effects, labour and cost required in order to produce a single mosaic. Generally speaking it is difficult to categorise the style of mosaic work as clearly as has been done with paintings. Linear and abstract styles were often evolved in parallel with different styles of figurative colour work. The height of this art was achieved in the Roman provinces of northern Africa where mosaics were created in every sense similar to an intricate painting of "the fourth style" (see the section on roman frescoes and painting). Small and detailed leaves, animals, portraits and figures all interwoven into a "carpet" of marble.

At the poorer end of the scale we have mosaics which verged on tiling. Small terracotta tiles of various geometric shapes such as squares and diamonds would be laid to create an overall pattern and only a number of these would have a single marble tessera inserted into them. This required little if any true "mosaic" work to be done in order to achieve a satisfactory and durable patterned surface.

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This page about ancient roman mosaics was written by Giovanni Milani-Santarpia for www.mariamilani.com