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MOSAICS FROM HADRIAN’S VILLA

MOSAICS FROM HADRIAN’S VILLA. A lion, a couple of cows, and some goats. GOATS & A GOATHERD. LION ATTACKING A BULL. So tell me about these mosaic then….

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MOSAICS FROM HADRIAN’S VILLA

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  1. MOSAICS FROM HADRIAN’S VILLA A lion, a couple of cows, and some goats.

  2. GOATS & A GOATHERD

  3. LION ATTACKING A BULL

  4. So tell me about these mosaic then… • These mosaics were discovered in a hall in the Central Court of Hadrian’s Villa that belongs to the second phase of building (125 – 134 AD). • They are made in polychrome tessellated technique: • multi-coloured pieces of imported marble and glass. • a painstaking and expensive process. • superseded the previous technically simpler black and white mosaics. • The naturalistic characteristics present in this mosaics are usually associated with wall paintings of the time. • The Greeks had a strong influence on Hadrian: • he spent lots of time in Athens, • Athenian influence is seen in his architecture plans, • Greek-influenced revival during Hadrian’s reign.

  5. STYLISTIC FEATURES • To create the illusion of depth in the scene and volume in the characters the artist has used: • shading, • highlighting, • three-quarter view, • foreshortening, • diminishing scale (of goats towards the background).

  6. The Goat Mosaic • The scene is set in a rocky landscape with a flock of goats near a stream. • There is a bronze statue dressed in the Greek fashion with a long tunic belted about the waist. • The statue also wears a wreath on its head, • it holds a bunch of grapes in its right hand, • in its left hand it holds a staff topped with leaves. • R. Hannah says this statue is probably an image of the god Dionysus. • M. Wheeler says it is just a goatherder. • Underneath the statue is a painting that could be of a phallus connected with the fertility god Priapus. • The figure of the deity and the tablet means the peaceful county scene is ‘sacro-idyllic’.

  7. The goats are shown from different viewpoints and angles: • The goats set higher in the scene are meant to be further away, • two goats are slightly smaller and therefore further away (‘linear perspective’), • one goat has its rear overlapped by a tree to add the feeling of depth. • there are also shadows cast by the three standing goats. • The trees on the left and smaller than the trees behind the statue giving the impression of space and distance. • The sky is not strongly contrasted and is a lighter shade of the far-ground.

  8. THE LION MOSIAC • In the foreground a lion attacks a bull while another bull watches on. • The lighter colour bull leaps back in fear. • The golden colour of the lion contrasts with the chocolate colour of the bull. • Red lines of blood fall from the bulls wound made by the lion’s claws and its mouth. • The scene includes a tree in the front right and a rocky outcrop to the left.

  9. A variety of techniques is used to indicate volume and depth: • there are shadows cast by the bull and the lion, • severe foreshortening on the bulls body with a ¾ view of its body from the rear, • shading and highlighting on the bulls horn’s, • the far lighter rock is overlapped by the closer darker rock, • the trees in the background are not as detailed as the one’s in the foreground.

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