Floor Mosaic with Personification of a Female Sea Divinity

Roman art

This mosaic, displayed in Room 7 with two others with marine subjects, seems to have been part of the elaborate floor of a Roman villa found in the eighteenth century on the Borghese estate at Castell’Arcione, on Via Tiburtina. It depicts a female face, rendered in bright hues, on a black background. Plant elements are interspersed among the short locks of hair, which hang down on the neck. The left part of the face, which is turned slightly to the right, seems to be in shadow. The absence of distinguishing characteristics makes it difficult to identify the figure: it could be a personification of a season, or a divinity from a marine thiasos, like a Nereid. The black background and irregular size of the tesserae suggest that the mosaic dates to the third century CE.

Object details

Commentary

This mosaic depicts the face of a young woman against a black background. Her head is slightly turned to the right, and her hair, described with red, brown, green and grey tesserae, is parted in the middle and arranged in short, unruly locks that hang down on her neck, extending beyond it. Plant elements, which can be interpreted as reeds, are interspersed throughout her hair. Her complexion is lively in hue and highlighted with a combination of red and yellow tesserae, with pink cheeks. The left side of her face seems to be slightly in shadow, expressed with tesserae in a darker hue. Her features are well defined, with tidy brown eyebrows, her gaze turned to the right and a slightly open, full mouth.

A lack of clear attributes makes it difficult to identify the figure. According to Marion Elizabeth Blake, it is a portrayal of a water nymph with reeds in her hair (Blake 1940, p. 107), while Raissa Calza instead saw it as a personification of a season (Calza 1957, p. 19, no. 219). Two other emblemata in Room 7 depict sea divinities and seem to have come from the same location, suggesting that this figure was also part of the marine thiasos and probably a Nereid. Nereids, the numerous daughters of the god Nereus, were portrayed as young, benevolent sea maidens. Blake held that the three panels were part of a single, complex mosaic, along with the two of fishing scenes inserted into the floor in Room 5 (Blake 1940, p. 117). The latter decorated a Roman villa found in the eighteenth century on the Borghese estate at Castell’Arcione, on Via Tiburtina (Visconti, Lamberti 1796, p. 38; Mari 1983, pp. 250–251, 258-260; Moreno, Sforzini 1987, p. 345). The three panels with sea divinities were inserted into the floor of the Sala Egizia when the residence underwent a major renovation in the eighteenth century, a project led by the architect Antonio Asprucci (Visconti, Lamberti 1796, p. 74). According to the archaeologist, the black background and irregular size of the tesserae suggest that the panel was influenced by Hellenistic mosaics, which first began to spread in Italy in the third century CE, the period to which the Borghese mosaic can be dated.

Giulia Ciccarello