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Rome’s hidden mosaics
With small tiles of marble and glass, Roman mosaicists created intricate mythological images, realistic scenes from nature, and other complex compositions to decorate the floors and walls of tombs, sanctuaries, and homes. Dalu Jones explores some mosaic masterpieces normally hidden in stores in Rome’s museums.
Like many cities, Rome was a hive of construction work between the late 19th and early 20th century as it put in place the many modern infrastructures needed for the capital of the newly unified state of Italy in 1871. To keep up with all this development, archaeological excavations were undertaken at a fast pace, unearthing large quantities of statues, furnishings, and floor- and wall-mosaics that once decorated ancient Roman houses and public buildings. Though there were many magnificent finds, not all of them went on view in the city’s existing museums; many, due to a lack of adequate spaces in which to exhibit them, ended up being stored in different warehouses. Only for a decade, betw
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