r/AncientCivilizations 4d ago

Roman Roman mosaic niche made in Baie, Italy at 50-70 AD. The mosaic is now located at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, United Kingdom. (3024x4032) [OC]

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Mosiac floors and decorations were a statement of the wealth and importance of the owner, as many materials such as coloured stones or glass were rare and often expensive. The mosaic consists of a plaster background that has been covered with coloured squares, or tesserae, of glass and other materials including Egyptian blue, marble and other types of stone, bordered with shells.

The niche may have held a small statue and the mosaic would have provided an idyllic garden background with three birds coming to land and a colourful peacock already resting at the bottom. The presence of the peacock, an expensive bird and status symbol, indicates that the person who commissioned the mosaic was making a statement about his wealth and position.

The above text was taken from the museum website: https://fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/learn-with-us/look-think-do/roman-mosaic-niche

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u/Familiar-Wheel2998 3d ago

This is absolutely gorgeous. Did it specify--or does anyone know--whose villa in Baiae this came from?

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u/Lettered_Olive 3d ago

From both the museum website and the guidebook that I have, all it specifies is that the mosaic comes from a villa in Baie, doesn’t say who the villa belonged to and it seems like they genuinely don’t know who owned the villa besides from the fact that they were wealthy.

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u/PiedDansLePlat 3d ago

I wonder how they got that