MosaicsRoman4th-5th century CE

Mosaic Pavement with Birds, from Feleet Village Building (Panel B)

4th-5th century CE

Description

This polychrome mosaic floor pavement depicts twelve birds on a plain, white background framed by a decorative, guilloche border in shades of green, yellow, and red. In the center of the panel stands a large bird, probably an eagle that faces forward bearing its breast and spreading its wings. In the lower register of the panel, two peacocks face one another. A peacock tail is preserved in the lower left composed of purple, pink, and green tesserae. The head of a second bird appears in the lower right. The peacock’s tail is rendered as a vertical plane and the feathers are carefully positioned in a repeating, stylized pattern. The remaining nine birds are spread throughout the panel and include such species as a goose, pheasant, and partridge (1). Tesserae in shades of yellow, brown, green, gray and purple create limited modeling the birds' forms. 1. Levi identifies the birds as a heron, duck, partridge, and parrot. For parrots, see House of the Beribboned Parrots; for an eagle in the same pose at Antioch see the House of Dionysus and Ariadne (Levi II, pl. CLXXIX.a)

Classification

Mosaics

Medium

stone and glass tesserae

Culture

Roman

Period

Roman Imperial period, Late

Century

4th-5th century CE

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Department

Department of Ancient and Byzantine Art & Numismatics

Dimensions

H. 180 x W. 245 x D. 38.1 cm (70 7/8 x 96 7/16 x 15 in.)

Provenance

Excavated from a building near the Feleet Village (Turkey, Hatay) by the Syrian Department of Antiquities (later the Hatay government) and the Committee for the Excavation of Antioch and Its Vicinity, (1936), dispersed; to Fogg Art Museum, 1939.