Mosaic Floor Panel Depicting Marine Life

200-230

Roman; Daphne, Turkey, the House of the Man of Letters, room 2

Fish was a luxury food among the Romans. Mosaics depicting marine life were especially popular in and around Antioch (near modern Antakya, Turkey), an ancient city located on the Orontes River that was known for the beauty of its waters. This mosaic, which was discovered in a house in Daphne (modern Harbiye), a prosperous garden town near Antioch, depicts several species of fish and shellfish. The representation of these sea creatures was likely intended to convey a message about the owner’s wealth as well as the variety of food available in the home.

Status: On View, Gallery 152
Department: Arts of the Ancient Mediterranean and Byzantium

Culture: Ancient Roman
Title: Mosaic Floor Panel Depicting Marine Life
Place: Antioch (Object found in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 200 CE–230 CE
Medium: Stone and mortar
Dimensions: 39.4 × 85.7 × 6.4 cm (15 1/2 × 33 3/4 × 2 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. Henry J. Patten
Reference Number: 1937.48
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/23276/manifest.json

Richard Stillwell (ed.), Antioch on-the-Orontes, vol. II: The Excavations, 1933-1936 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1938), pp. 203-204, pl. 78.
Doro Levi, Antioch Mosaic Pavements, Volume I (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1947), p. 117-119 (ill.).
Karen B. Alexander, “From Plaster to Stone: Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” in Karen Manchester, Recasting the Past: Collecting and Presenting Antiquities at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), p. 31.
Sandra E. Knudsen, with contributions by Rachel C. Sabino, “Cat. 154 Mosaic Floor Panel Depicting Marine Life: Curatorial Entry,” in Roman Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 2016).

Art Institute of Chicago, Of Gods and Glamour: The Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art, Gallery 152, November 11, 2012 - present.

Excavated by a team of Princeton archeologists in Daphne, near Antioch-on-the-Orontes, Syria (now Antakya, Turkey), authorized by Service des Antiquités of the French Mandate of Syria and Lebanon, 1936; given to Henry J. Patten (1862-1938), Chicago; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1937.

Cat. 154 Mosaic Floor Panel Depicting Marine Life, A.D. 200/30

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.