Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
ADJUNCT MODULE A: ITALIAN ART
Preferred Title:
Advice of the Sorceress
Image View:
Detail, seated women wearing Greek theater masks, and serving girl at right with no mask
Creator:
Dioskourides of Samos (Ancient Greek mosaicist, ca. 2nd century BCE)
Location:
repository: Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Naples, Campania, Italy) 9987
Location Note:
Piazza Museo Nazionale, 19
GPS:
40.8534 14.2505
Date:
ca. 150-125 BCE (creation)
Cultural Context:
Roman (ancient)
Style Period:
Greco-Roman; Hellenistic
Work Type 1:
floor (surface element)
Work Type 2:
mosaic (visual work)
Classification:
mosaics
Material:
colored stone tesserae
Technique:
mosaic (process)
Measurements:
48 cm (height) x 46 cm (width)
Inscription:
Dioskourides Samios epoiese (Dioskourides of Samos made me)
Description:
The central emblemata of a floor (from Villa of Cicero, outside Herculaneum Gate, excavated 1764) bears the signature, like another small scene from the same villa, of Dioskourides of Samos. It exemplifies the Hellenistic tradition at its best. The scene portrayed is either from Aristophanes’s comedy Synaristoi or from a play of the New Comedy. Three women carrying masks are seated round a circular table, two of them youthful and the other an old hag. The presence of vases on the table suggests that the sorceress might be preparing love potions, assisted by a serving girl seen on the right. (Source: Naples National Archaeological Museum [website]; http://cir.campania. beniculturali.it/mus eoarcheologiconazion ale)
Collection:
Adjunct Module A: Italian Art
Identifier:
7A3-R-NAM-AOS-A02
Rights:
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.

Advice of the Sorceress