Reviews

058

Ancient Mosaics

Roger Ling
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998) 144 pp., $19.95

Mosaics of the Greek and Roman World

Katherine M.D. Dunbabin
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999) 357 pp., $135.95

In the last three decades, scholars have made enormous advances studying ancient Greek and Roman mosaics. We have begun to understand not only when, where and how most ancient mosaics were made, but also how they were viewed and used by the people who created them. Now much of the recent progress in mosaic studies has been summarized for the layperson in two new books by acknowledged world experts: Roger Ling’s Ancient Mosaics and Katherine M. Dunbabin’s Mosaics of the Greek and Roman World.

Clear, concise and easy to read, Ling’s slim paperback provides an excellent introduction to the field of mosaics. He gives a brief overview of basic mosaic techniques, examines the art form’s development in different historical and architectural contexts and provides a helpful glossary and bibliography of fundamental works.

Despite the book’s general title, most of Ancient Mosaics is devoted to mosaics in the Greco-Roman world. Ling starts by discussing the basic principles and techniques of mosaic production laid down by the ancient Greeks in the fifth to third centuries B.C. Then he moves on to a detailed examination of a uniquely Roman art form—the black-and-white mosaic. Developed in the late first century B.C., this type of floor decoration abandoned the traditional Greek technique of creating small, painting-like mosaic insets (known as emblemata) and instead featured simple black-and-white silhouette patterns (similar to those found on black-figure vases). In the heyday of the black-and-white style (the first and second centuries A.D.), mosaicists decorated enormous public spaces with these elegant figural compositions. The second-century A.D., black-and-white pavement of the Baths of Neptune in Ostia, for example, stretches over more than 2000 square feet.

From the center of the Roman empire, Ling moves out to the periphery—tracking the evolution of mosaics in the Roman east (especially in Antioch, in Turkey, and Paphos, in Cyprus), the Roman northwest (modern day Spain, France, Germany and England) and Roman North Africa. He also traces the evolution of mosaics through the early Christian period, exploring the dazzling church mosaics of Ravenna, Italy, which were commissioned as tributes to the Emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora in 547 A.D. In his final chapter, Ling moves on to more theoretical terrain—exploring how ancient viewers might have perceived mosaics in relation to the buildings they adorned.

Unfortunately, Ling’s analysis isoccasionally undermined by a lack of 061documentation. His book contains no footnotes and the captions accompanying the illustrations fail to give the dimensions of each mosaic—making it difficult for the reader to imagine how close the viewer had to stand to see the imagery.

The ampler format and scope of Dunbabin’s Greek and Roman Mosaics permits her to examine a greater number of mosaics, in greater detail, than does Ling. Like Ling, she devotes about three-quarters of her text to questions of historical and regional development, but she also includes almost 100 pages on the mechanics of mosaic production. The reader can learn how specific techniques developed, how workshops transmitted styles and images throughout the Roman empire and what meanings various subjects might have had for their ancient viewers. Her documentation is impeccable: She gives footnotes, an appendix illustrating common ornamental patterns, a general glossary, a bibliography and two indexes. Dunbabin provides a comprehensive review of nearly all of the aspects of ancient mosaics that have occupied scholars over the last three decades.

Both books emphasize the survival of the classical tradition in the Christian period. A good example of lingering classicism can be found in two mosaic floor panels in the sixth-century A.D. Hall of Hippolytus in Madaba, Jordan. These panels present several scenes from classical mythology: They tell the ancient Greek stories of Theseus’s son Hippolytus, who died after spurning the love of his stepmother Phaedra, and Aphrodite’s lover Adonis, whose life was cut short in a tragic hunting accident. These traditional myths, however, are rendered in up-to-date Byzantine style, with elongated figures posed frontally and floating against a plain white ground.

Both Ling and Dunbabin have provided lavish illustrations throughout. However, the color plates in both books frequently fall short. In the age of digital color correction, it is particularly lamentable to see such flat and muted reproductions. Sadly, some of the mosaics have also deteriorated considerably since their excavation; with these the authors have had to make do with archival black-and-white photographs.

Despite these quibbles, both authors succeed in communicating the beauty and complexity of mosaic art in clear, jargon-free prose. Readers of Ling’s book may well find their appetites whetted for the greater detail and more probing analysis that Dunbabin’s text provides. Neither book will disappoint.

Ancient Mosaics