Symbols of Bacchus as God of Wine and the Theater

c. 200/225 A.D.

Created with tiny pieces of colored marble, stone, and glass, this rectangular mosaic shows four columns separated by stylized peacock feathers. Each vertical zone is divided again by two curving, garland-like swags into three sections, which are filled with birds, people, masks, or other objects, and is framed with a twisted, rope-like pattern around the edge. The entire mosaic is created with matte tones of light beige, chocolate brown, pale yellow, olive green, black, and white. In each column, a bird on a branch occupies the top section. Below, and separated by the garlands, the center sections each have a single object, with masks in the form of bearded men’s faces hanging from ribbons in the columns to our left and right. A nearly nude woman covered loosely with drapery holds a long spear and what might be a tray of leafy food in the second column from the left, and a nude man holding a curving staff and perhaps another tray or foodstuffs strides to our right in the second column from the right. Drapery flutters around each person’s shoulders. In the bottom row, there is an object like a stylized eye to our left; an L-shaped object, perhaps a stylized, broken column, in the space next to it; a mask with long hair and downturned lips in the next space; and, finally, an urn holding fruit. All four objects in the bottom row are suspended with thin cords. The background throughout is oyster white. The border is made up of butter-yellow, brick-red, and olive-green S-shapes with black and white bands, entwined to make a twisted pattern.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 26


Artwork overview


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Discovered 1941 or 1942 in El Jem, Tunisia; possibly on deposit at the Alaoui Museum (Musée National du Bardo), Tunis, before 1961;[1] presented 4 May 1961 to the National Gallery of Art by Habib Bourguiba, president of the Tunisian Republic.
[1] Inaugurated in 1888 as the Alaoui Museum in the Bardo palace, this institution was renamed the Musée National du Bardo in 1956, when Tunisia became independent. See Mohammed Yacoub, Musée du Bardo; Musée Antique (Tunis, 1970): 5. An information sheet from the Tunisian Embassy, dated 3 May 1961, in NGA curatorial files, refers to the mosaic as "from the Alaoui Museum." Margaret A. Alexander has found that it was never accessioned there and that the museum has no record of ever owning it. Conceivably it may once have been on deposit there; a postcard in Professor Alexander's collection, of unknown date, reproduces a detail of the ivy-crowned mask on the right side of the Washington mosaic with the caption "MUSEE NATIONAL DU BARDO/ 59-Masque de Silène/ (Mosaïque El-Djem)."

Associated Names

Bibliography

n.d.

  • Alexander, Margaret A. "Dionysiac Mosaic from El Jem in the National Gallery of Art, Washington." Unpublished paper, received 1985, in NGA curatorial files.

1944

  • Truillot, A., In "Séance de la Commission de l'Afrique de Nord." In Bulletin Archéologique du Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques. 1941-1942, vols. unnumbered, (1944): 292-293, record of discovery.

1963

  • Foucher, Louis. La Maison de la Procession Dionysiaque à El Jem. Paris, 1963: 103, 126 n. 206.

1972

  • Musurillo, Reverend Herbert. "The Roman Mosaic from Tunisia in the National Gallery." Unpublished paper, Fordham University, November 1972, in NGA curatorial files.

Wikidata ID

Q62286729


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