Some Geometrical Patterns and Decorative Motifs Occurring in Roman Portuguese Mosaics: A Comparative Approach with Eastern and Western Mosaics

• Main Author: Licínia Nunes Correia WRENCH
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: Bursa Uludağ University Mosaic Research Centre 2014-11-01
• Series: Journal of Mosaic Research
• Subjects: roman mosaic; «compass drawing schema»; peltae with hedera in the central point; tangent cuboids; alternate bells
• Online Access: https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/294110

Comparing some geometrical patterns and decorative motifs occurring in Roman mosaics from the West and the East, namely from Portugal and from Turkey, we aim to understand the reasons for the similarities and the divergences between them, attending also to the chronologies. In the first place we will focus on the “compass drawing” composition, its geographical expansion and some achievements of this schema on mosaics from the Western and Eastern Roman Provinces such as Dalmatia, Macedonia and Pontus. From Lusitania, we will focus particularly on mosaics proceeding from some villae located in the Portuguese territory comparing them with a mosaic proceeding from Pontus, attending their chronologies and their decoration. Secondly, we will do a first approach to the analysis of a mosaic, unpublished, and reported by Abraços 2005, proceeding from the Roman city of Bracara Augusta, nowadays Braga, in the NW of Portugal. On this interesting mosaic, we can see some decorative motifs that are quite common on the Eastern and North African realisations, though restricted to a group of Portuguese mosaics belonging to Conuentus Scalabitanus: from «Casa de Cantaber» at Conimbriga and from the Roman villae of Santiago da Guarda and of Rabaçal, both in the area of the Conimbriga ciuitas. The stylistic comparisons of Bracara Auguta’s mosaic and these of Portuguese and also eastern and western realisations point to an achievement from the 3rd/4th c. A.D. This chronology seems coincident with the urban improvement that Bracara Augusta benefited under its promotion to the capital of the Province Gallaecia.