The History of Roman Mosaics

Home/New Flooring/The History of Roman Mosaics

The History of Roman Mosaics

What Are Mosaics?

A mosaic is an image or picture that is created from assembling small parts of stone or glass, that are flat, come in different colours and are approximately square. Usually placed on the wall or floor, mosaics were used to decorate the interiors of buildings or as decorative art. Mosaics were first used in ancient Iraq in 3000 BC but are most often identified with the Roman Empire who inherited it from their cultural forebears, the Greeks. You can find classic examples of mosaic in the Roman town of Wroxeter in Shropshire.

Technology

Roman mosaics came in two different techniques; opus vermiculation which used tiny tesserae (tiles) of less than 4mm in size that allowed very detailed images, and opus tessellation that use larger tesserae. The smaller tesserae were employed in workshops and the larger was used on site.

What Did They Depict?

Religion

The polytheistic Roman religion was a popular topic for mosaics in the Roman Empire but became even more prevalent when Christianity gradually took over as state religion in later years.

Portraits

Art containing entertaining events or famous people was frequent in the mosaics of Roman buildings. Examples of this would include famous battles depicting from Roman triumphs of the past or gladiators fighting other gladiators and animals in events at amphitheatres.

Emblems

This term is used to describe a modest mosaic that shows a small still life or genre scene. It is typified by slender tesserae created separately and mounted in an important place in the primary panel of the piece.

Cooper & Williams

We at Cooper & Williams are a tiling, roofing and flooring specialist that is based in the Shropshire town of Shrewsbury. Cooper & Williams are proud to have faithfully served many different diverse customers, both commercial and private over the past five decades and have always strived to meet their expectations – and beyond. The primary roofing services that we provide are pitched roofing, flat roofing, roof repairs and commercial roofing, while our flooring services include wood flooring, tiling, carpeting, luxury vinyl, safety floors, decorate wall cladding, hard floors and wood effect flooring. We are honoured to employ a staff of very experienced experts that are both highly qualified and motivated to provide our customers with the answers to their roofing or flooring questions. Cooper & Williams are proud to have served the local area for half a century and have built up a stellar reputation for reliability and affordability in our sector through hard-work and a commitment to quality. We cover the areas of Oswestry, Aberystwyth, Ludlow, Machynlleth, Newtown, Welshpool, Market Drayton, Whitchurch and Telford as well as our hometown of Shrewsbury. Feel free to arrange a free consultation with Cooper & Williams today by phoning one of our friendly customer service staff on 01743 850711 or emailing us via admin@coopwill.co.uk for a speedy response.

By | 2024-02-16T11:03:24+00:00 May 14th, 2019|New Flooring|0 Comments