Ancient Roman Marble Mosaic with a marine deity and two dolphins. Very nice. 63 x 55 cm L.

Mosaic with a marine deity and two dolphins Roman Empire, 3rd - 4th century AD. MATERIAL: Marble tesserae DIMENSIONS: Height 63 cm; width 55 cm --- profesional metal frame and plexiglass mounted, you can put in the wall --- PROVENANCE: Private collection P. A. , Switzerland, formed in the 1970 - 1980. PUBLICATIONS: - Optimus Princeps. J. Bagot Arqueología. Barcelona. 2017. Fig 49. CONDITION: In a good state of preservation, without restoration. DESCRIPTION: In antiquity the sea was considered to be the kingdom of mystery. It marked off the known world while at the same time it was the primordial source from which arose most of the economic activities of the Mediterranean coastal cultures. The Greeks and the Romans shaped grandiloquent myths to explain the grandeur and changeable nature of the sea, a power which they considered to be supernatural. Poseidon/Neptune, the main sea divinity, had the privilege of being accompanied by a triumphal entourage of attendants, known as the Thiasos of the Sea. The term thiasoi designated the retinue or organization whose task it was celebrate festivals in honour of a divinity. They made up a noisy troupe of revellers who accompanied the deity in a joyful procession. This iconographic theme emerged around the 4th century BC in Greece, in parallel with the Dionysian thiasos. Neptune, Oceanus and the river gods were represented as mature bearded men, with long, thick heads of hair. On occasion they were depicted reclining on a vessel with water gushing forth and accompanied by different marine creatures: monsters, fish, dolphins, tritones and nereids. The sea and the ocean were conceived, according to Hesiod, as a watery belt which encircled the world, the fertile begetter of all rivers and watery streams on earth (Theogony, 133 ss and 337 ss) . This prototype was seen widely in marble sculpture, but beautiful examples have also been preserved in Roman mosaics (see representations of Nilus in the Vatican Museums and the cosmogonic mosaic in Merida) . At the same time there is another iconographic model of these marine divinities which derives from what has been explained above: the depiction of the god as a mask/figurehead or bust, possibly influenced by the old Greek image of the Achelous River. This was the motif used especially in the decoration of Roman houses in all the imperial territory from 1st century AD on. At this time it became fashionable for mural paintings in the Domus Aurea to depict vegetal motifs and fantastic intertwined animals, known as grotesques in specialized literature. Mosaics were the artistic media in which the iconography of the marine thiasos would have great impact in all the provinces, especially in the north of Africa. From the middle of the 2nd century and in the first half of the 3rd century AD numerous mosaics were to be found with the visage of Oceanus, depicting his grandeur, his fluidity and his strength (see Hatay Archaeology Museum, Antakya 1013) . The special iconographic attributes of Oceanus are explicit references to the life which flows from his breast, where plants and marine animals can be seen as an expression of the fecundity which the water brought to the riverside dwellers. It is not surprising, therefore, that his effigy was taken over as an icon associated with profound beliefs and that his mask was judged to be a symbol which spoke of the abundance afforded by the medium of water. As well as having a decorative character in places related to water, the mask must have been considered an apotropaic and cathartic symbol whose qualities protected the water used or consumed and guaranteed the prosperity of the property. The construction of Roman thermal complexes favoured the use of mosaics related to water, following the principles of decoration set out by Vitruvius. In the workshop in the Gallias, Britannia and Hispania a considerable number of pavements were decorated with the marine theme, all of them designed to adorn nymphaea and thermal contexts, in most cases without the profound symbolism which they had had in the north of Africa. The provincial interpretations of the workshops of Gaul and Britannia which arose in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th centuries AD followed a formal provincial model in which schematization prevailed, with the face of the divinity accompanied by two or four dolphins (see the mosaics made by North African artists in Ossonoba, the mosaic in the British Museum and La Maison des Dieux Oceans) . This mosaic in question possibly belongs to a larger mosaic with a marine theme, which would have decorated a room in a domus romana, either the tablinum or the triclinium. Given that the sea was a cosmic symbol, liminal, related to fertility, the theme was probably chosen so as to show visitors the importance of the owner of the property in local society, as well as to demonstrate his acquisitive power. The fragment, which would have been found in the corner of the mosaic, shows a bust of a figure accompanied by two dolphins, the usual attributes of Neptune and Oceanus. The fact that the face is not bearded could be due to the assimilation of its iconography with that of the tritons, anguiped marine creatures represented in some mosaic as beardless youths who took part in the marine Thiasos blowing conches (see Sabratha mosaic) . We should not, however, eliminate the possibility that we are dealing with the representation of a nereid: the nereids were nymphs in the Mediterranean Sea, beautiful beings who lived in the depths and helped mariners in danger. They symbolized the amiable side of the oceans. The round face and the long hair in this present work evoke prototypes found across the entire imperial territory. These were mostly accompanied by Ceto, the marine monster whose head brings to mind that of a dragon, but whose body is that of a dolphin (see the mosaics of Zeugma, Museum of Baltimore) . In any case, the animals mentioned and the dense unruly hair of the bust reflect the constant movement of the waters. Given the schematization of the figure and the limited range of colour used in the tesserae, it is possible that the piece corresponds to the models found in the northern provinces of the Empire. NOTES: - The piece includes authenticity certificate. - The piece includes Spanish Export License. - The seller guarantees that he acquired this piece according to all national and international laws related to the ownership of cultural property. Provenance statement seen by Catawiki.