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This series of four mosaic fragments depicts two figures seated on a couch with a canopy above their heads.

The woman is seated on the left, wearing a purple garment and a dome-shaped golden crown. She raises her right arm above her head, holding yellow fruit. On the right, only the man’s lower legs and feet remain because there’s a circular piece missing from the center. He wears high-laced buskins and a pleated garment. Two winged figures complete the composition: one stands at the man’s feet and the second floats above the couple on the right, holding one edge of the canopy. The scene is framed by a braided border and a pattern of birds alternating with flowering plants.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1939.146.A
Title
Mosaic with Two Figures Seated on a Couch: Top Panel of Bird and Plant Border (one of four panels from a floor)
Classification
Mosaics
Work Type
mosaic
Date
3rd century CE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Antioch (Syria)
Period
Roman Imperial period
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/291657

Physical Descriptions

Medium
stone tesserae mosaic
Dimensions
H. 53.3 cm h x W. 195.6 cm w x D. 6.4 cm d (21 x 77 in. x 2 1/2)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
House of the Green Carpet, Antioch, DH 30Q (Turkey, Hatay). Excavated by the Syrian Department of Antiquities (later the Hatay government) and the Committee for the Excavation of Antioch and Its Vicinity (1937), dispersed; to Fogg Museum of Art, 1939.


Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of the Committee for the Excavation of Antioch and its Vicinity
Accession Year
1939
Object Number
1939.146.A
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Description
This series of four mosaic fragments depicts a man and woman seated together on a couch with a pink canopy raised above their heads. The woman wears a dark purple himation with a golden border that drapes across her lap, and a dome-shaped golden crown. She raises her right arm above her head and holds a yellow fruit between her fingers. On the right are the man’s lower legs and two feet, crossed at the ankle and resting on a stool. He wears high-laced buskins and a long, pleated garment. Two erotes complete the composition: one stands at the man’s feet peddling goods from his basket and the second floats above the couple on the right, holding one edge of the canopy.

The figural scene is framed by a border of guilloche followed by a pattern of heraldic birds that alternate with flowering plants.
Commentary
The composition likely represents Venus and her consort Adonis in a private moment prior to Adonis’ departure for the hunt. The couple appears in one other instance at Antioch in the Atrium House where they are shown enthroned (1).

The panel comes from the House of the Green Carpet near Daphne, a suburb of Antioch in modern-day Hatay, Turkey. It was found during the 1936 excavations led by the Committee for the Excavation of Antioch and its Vicinity.

Notes:
1. See Princeton Museum inv. 40.156; R. Stillwell and G. Elderkin, Antioch-on-the-Orontes I (Princeton: Committee for the Excavation of Antioch and its Vicinity, 1934), 42, 47-48, fig. 9; Doro Levi, Antioch Mosaic Pavements (Princeton University Press, 1947), 24-25, pl. 2a.

Publication History

  • Antioch On-the-Orontes III, Edited by Richard Stillwell: The Excavations 1937-1939 (Princeton University, 1941), p. 203, pl. 77; cat. 160
  • Doro Levi, Antioch Mosaic Pavements, Princeton University Press (Princeton, 1947), pl. LXXIa
  • Doro Levi, Antioch Mosaic Pavements, Princeton University Press (Princeton, 1947), p. 315

Subjects and Contexts

  • Roman Domestic Art

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu