Up close and personal with the Lod Mosaic
In the summer season of '09, the incredible Sara Baldwin sent me a hyperlink to a story about a Roman mosaic that were found and preserved in Lod, Israel. The photograph above is the complete mosaic. It's a hello-res, so click on it if you want a better view.
The mosaic became great, nearly 2,000 square feet and it became in a nearly pristine nation. It were located in 1996 after which buried again till 2004. By 2004, the Israeli Antiquities Authority had a plan and in that identical year, they put that plan into action.
I have a thing for Roman art and mosaics, I've written about that on this blog a lot. So does Sara and that shared love of ancient mosaics is what drew the two of us together in the first place. I wrote about the Lod mosaic in June, 2009 .
I introduced it to a totally long listing of things I desired to peer but figured I by no means would some time when I wrote that put up.
At some factor this beyond fall, some other splendid lady and lover of all matters Roman, JoAnn Locktov told me that the Lod Mosaic turned into coming to the US on a excursion while the Israeli Antiquities Authority constructed the museum with a purpose to residence it finally. The first prevent on that excursion is the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
The exhibit opened at the end of September and it runs through April 3, 2011 . So in what has to be one of the coolest coincidences ever, I went to see the Lod Mosaic on Saturday afternoon.
No be counted how many pics of it I'd seen not anything prepared me for it completely. It's extensively larger than I notion it might be and the colours are shockingly vivid.
Here are a few element photographs I took on Saturday.
Amazing stuff.
The Roman love of tile and mosaic are why were have tile bathrooms and kitchens today by the way. That civilization, more than any other ancient civilization, touches our daily lives almost continuously. Whether the custom in question is birthday cake or wedding rings or Christmas presents or tile bathrooms, the Romans played a role in all of that stuff.
More than any of that even though, it's the imagery in Roman mosaics that speaks to me most profoundly.
One of the many things I love about Sara Baldwin and her company, New Ravenna, is their way of taking a page from the ancient Romans and interpreting that style for the here and now. I can't buy a Roman mosaic, no one can really. That's a good thing, surviving artifacts are a resource that belong to everybody. I can however, have a bathroom floor made that will remind me of the Roman floors I've seen and walked on. Here are some samples of New Ravenna's classically-inspired mosaic patterns.
Whether it's from Lod or from Exmore, VA; it's all pretty amazing stuff. If you'll be in New York between now and April, please spend a few hours at the Metropolitan Museum .