Antioch mosaics
The Antioch mosaics are a grouping of over 300 mosaic floors created around the 3rd century AD, and discovered during archaeological excavations of Antioch (Antioch on the Orontes, in modern Turkey) between 1932 and 1939 by a consortium of five museums and institutions. About half of the mosaics are now in the Hatay Archaeology Museum in Antakya, with the rest in the Worcester Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Baltimore Museum of Art, Harvard University and Princeton University Art Museum among others. The mosaics range in design from realistic imagery and scenes to purely geometric patterns.
History
Beginning in 1932, a consortium of museums and institutions sponsored expeditions to the archaeological sites where the city of
The floors the archaeologists discovered were covered in intricate mosaics. More than 300 mosaics were found.[4]
In 1939 the expedition ended and the archaeologists packed up to leave. They left about half of the unearthed mosaics to the city of
Art
The Antioch mosaics were created at a time and place between distinct artistic styles. They show the link between
The
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Realistic scene, The Judgement of ParisLouvre Museum
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Realistic Imagery, Bust of Tethys Baltimore Museum of Art
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Geometric pattern,Antakya Archaeological Museum
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Mosaic pavement: drinking contest of Herakles and Dionysos, Princeton University Art Museum
See also
- Megalopsychia Hunt of Antioch mosaics
- Zliten mosaic
- Early Byzantine mosaics in the Middle East
- Late Antique and medieval mosaics in Italy
References
- ^ a b c Fabrikant, Geraldine. Mosaic Restoration As Performance Art; A Public Face-Lift for a 3rd-Century Floor. The New York Times. August 29, 2005. Retrieved January 22, 2011
- ^ a b Collection: Antioch Mosaics Archived December 12, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Baltimore Museum of Art. Retrieved January 26, 2011
- ^ a b Worcester Art Museum Restores Border Panels to Worcester Hunt, Largest Antioch Floor Mosaic in America. Worcester Art Museum. Retrieved January 26, 2011
- ^ a b c d e f Weisgall, Deborah. ART/ARCHITECTURE; Reading a Civilization Through Its Ancient Shards. The New York Times. November 19, 2000. Retrieved January 19, 2011
- ^ a b Archambeault, Marie Jeanette. Sourcing of Marble Used in Mosaics at Antioch (Turkey) Archived July 20, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.University of South Florida,College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Anthropology. Thesis. April 9, 2004. Retrieved January 26, 2009.