Detail View: ADJUNCT MODULE A: ITALIAN ART: Academy of Plato

Collection:	ADJUNCT MODULE A: ITALIAN ART
Preferred Title:	Academy of Plato
Alternate Title:	Colloquio di filosofi
Image View:	Detail, philosophers; from left, Plato, two unidentified figures, Senocrates, and Aristotle
Creator:	unknown (Roman (ancient))
Location:	repository: Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Naples, Campania, Italy) 124545
Location Note:	Piazza Museo Nazionale, 19; Sala LIX
GPS:	+40.8534+14.2505
Date:	ca. 175-25 BCE (creation)
Cultural Context:	Roman (ancient)
Style Period:	First Style; Late Republican
Work Type 1:	mosaic (visual work)
Classification:	mosaics
Material:	colored stone tesserae
Technique:	mosaic (process)
Measurements:	86 cm (height) x 85 cm (width)
Description:	From the House of T. Siminius Stephanus in Torre Annunziata (near Pompeii). The mosaic, in First Style, framed by a rich festoon of leaves, fruit and comical masks, typical of this period, portrays the reunion of a group of seven philosophers. Four are seated on a semicircular stone seat with leonine feet and three are standing. The third from the left could be Plato: depicted with a large head and wide forehead, he holds a rod in his right hand and traces a geometrical figure on the ground. The figure on far right holding a scroll may be Aristotle. In the background, in the view of a temple on a hill it is possible to identify the Acropolis of Athens with the Parthenon. The chosen theme in the mosaic, which at the time of the eruption had been removed from its original location probably in order to be sold, clearly alludes to the literary and philosophical interests of the owner of the villa and probably derives from a Late Hellenistic model. (Source: Naples National Archaeological Museum [website]; http://cir.campania.beniculturali.it/museoarcheologiconazionale)
Collection:	Adjunct Module A: Italian Art
Identifier:	7A3-R-NAM-PLA-A02
Rights:	© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.