Close up of mosaic corner depicting border, after conservation
- Description:
- Close up of mosaic corner depicting border, after conservation
- Photographer:
- Image captured by Project Staff
- Date Created:
- July 16, 2003
- Collection:
- Greco-Roman Museum Mosaic Conservation
- Series:
- Post-conservation
- Subseries:
- Stag Hunt Mosaic
- Location:
- Alexandria, Egypt and Al Iskandarīyah
- Time Period:
- Hellenistic Period and Ptolemaic Period
- Topic:
- Art, Greco-Roman, Borders, Ornamental (Decorative arts), Mosaics, Tesserae, and Stonework
- Genre:
- color photographs and documentary photography
- Conservation Note:
- Multiple layers of ornamental borders framed the larger border with depicted mythological and real animals. (1) The outermost border is a wide border of creamy-white tesserae set in a haphazard and irregular way. The blurred effect is enhanced by the apparently intentional mottled coloring of the cubes, now distinctly visible thanks to the cleaning of the mosaic and the bedding mortar; the cubes reveal different shades of white through cream instead of being uniformly white. (2) Lining it is a narrow checkerboard band of obliquely set yellow and creamy-white, dark gray and red tesserae. (3) The checkerboard band is followed by a double guilloche of yellowish-brown and creamy-white tesserae. It has yellow or red calyx-shaped fields in the middle and red and dark-gray circular buttons in between the plaits, made either of four triangular stone or of specially cut round stones or terracotta. The yellow cubes turned out to be more varied in tone than previously thought, revealing an apparently intentional mottled effect. (4) The last border outlining the larger “animal border” is mottled red and orange-red tesserae set irregularly in 4-5 rows (5 cm wide) (Final Remarks Report).
- Copyright Status:
- copyrighted
- Creative Commons License:
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
- Local ID:
- arce_ca_mmc_images_0001.tif
- Project History:
- Within the walls of the Greco-Roman Museum, Alexandria, Egypt are three intricate mosaics of very fine quality between the second and third century, BCE. Under the auspices of the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE), Father Michele Piccirillo of the Studium Biblicum Franciscum directed the conservation of the mosaics. Notably, it resulted in the public viewing of the stag hunt mosaic for the first time since its discovery. Conservation work was made possible with the support of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (formerly the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities).
- Funding Agency:
- Greco-Roman Museum Mosaic Conservation project was made possible with funding by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Grant No. 263-G-00-93-00089-00 and administered by the Egyptian Antiquities Project (EAP) of the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE).