Detail View: ADJUNCT MODULE A: ITALIAN ART: Alexander Mosaic
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Collection:
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ADJUNCT MODULE A: ITALIAN ART
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Preferred Title:
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Alexander Mosaic
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Alternate Title:
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Battle of Issus
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Image View:
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Detail, small rock outcrop in an empty landscape
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Creator:
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after Philoxenos of Eretria (Ancient Greek painter, active late 4th century BCE); unknown (Roman (ancient))
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Location:
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repository: Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Naples, Campania, Italy) 10020
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Location Note:
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Piazza Museo Nazionale, 19; Sala LXI
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GPS:
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+40.8534+14.2505
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Date:
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100-80 BCE (creation)
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Cultural Context:
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Roman (ancient)
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Style Period:
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Greco-Roman; Hellenistic
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Work Type 1:
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mosaic (visual work)
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Work Type 2:
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floor (surface element)
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Classification:
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mosaics
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Material:
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natural stone tesserae
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Technique:
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mosaic (process)
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Measurements:
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317 cm (height) x 555 cm (length)
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Description:
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The greatest number of fine mosaics in any one house in Pompeii came from the House of the Faun (VI.12.2.37), dating to ca. 100 BCE. Outstanding here is the Alexander Mosaic, probably representing the Battle of Issus (Issos) in Cilicia between Alexander the Great (reigned 336-323 BCE) and Darius III (reigned 335-331 BCE. The entire floor mosaic contained an estimated four million tesserae, all of natural stone, in a four-color technique recalling that of Greek Late Classical painting; it was perhaps modeled after the painting ascribed to Philoxenos of Eretria, done shortly after the battle itself. (This connection has not been proved.) This panel is also the most famous example of the technique known as opus vermiculatum; so-called from the wormlike look of the close-set rows of undulating tesserae. (Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.oxfordartonline.com/)
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Collection:
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Adjunct Module A: Italian Art
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Identifier:
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7A3-R-NAM-AM-D09
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Rights:
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© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.
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