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A decorative technique that conveys a beauty of art that is not only in the works before the eyes, but on the earth that we walk on, the mosaic has very ancient origins in Asia Minor and Mesopotamia, but it is nonetheless much characteristic of the Greek-Roman world, then spreading in the Middle Ages.
The Romans refined the mosaic technique and used it on the walls and floors of the patrician houses, villas and public buildings. Precisely in Rome, at the Centrale Montemartini museum, the first public electricity station in Rome converted into an exhibition space since 1997, an interesting find is exhibited after restoration: it is the mosaic of the Real Casa, discovered in Rome in 1900 near the present Quirinale Garden.
Created to decorate the flooring of the representation room of a noble residence of the late imperial era, its surface is entirely decorated with vegetable spirals that come out of kantharoi, containers with high handles, placed in the corners and in the center of the long sides of the floor.
The interesting find accompanies the current museum's exhibition, recently extended until June 15: "Colors of the Romans: mosaics from the Capitoline collections". Through the colorful texture of these works, the show offers a glimpse of Roman society over a large period between the first century BC. and the 4th century AD. The exhibited mosaics are put into context though the exhibition of frescoes and sculptures on their side, in ordere to reconstruct the furnishings of the buildings of origin, bringing out the taste and needs of the clients in those times.
After the fall of Imperial Rome, the technique of laying the mosaic was integrated into Christian, Byzantine, Persian and Indian architecture. Today, the main centers of hand-made mosaics are to found in Lebanon and Syria.
