Jess’s Diamond Mosaic
Jessica Farr-Varney chose this mosaic as her object. From MODES she was able to discover that this is a reconstruction of a mosaic floor from the Roman villa at Norton Disney, about 8 miles from Newark. It shows a motif of the design, consisting of a red diamond surrounded by 4 white lozenge shapes in a grey background. There are red, white and grey tesserae used in this mosaic. Norton Disney was a fairly large villa site, which was in use from the end of the first century AD until the middle of the fourth century AD. Jess was able to find out that mosaics such as this were common on the floor of Roman villas, particularly in the triclinium, what we would know as the dining room, where diners would have lounged on benches set around the floor of the room. The area underneath the benches would probably not have had mosaics on them as they would not be seen. The idea was to impress your dinner guests with the decoration of your home, which would have been used to entertain clients, i.e. people who owed you money or favours in return for your patronage. Many mosaics depicted scenes from Roman or Greek mythology, although not in this instance, and Jess was able to see some of the larger more elaborate mosaics during the visit to the British Museum.
Jess examining a mosaic at the British Museum
Mosaics were made by cutting small pieces of coloured stone (tesserae) to fit within a pattern, which might have been a standard design or one more personal to the villa owner. Jess chose this object because she liked the pattern created by the tesserae and the colours used. She would like to put it on the floor of the conservatory at home.
