ABSTRACT ART AND HELLENISTIC MOSAICS

ABSTRACT ART AND HELLENISTIC MOSAICS

(NOTES AND IMAGES ON ..)

Olynthus Mosaic from House A xi 9 (excerpt from Andronicos 1964)

 .. mosaics from Olynthos that are in more or less good condition. Most of them have decorative geometric motifs anyhow, as we have said above. Yet it would be a real ommision if I did not mention a unique mosaic, unique not only among the other mosaics of Olynthos, or the rest of Greece, but also among the total number of painting compositions in the ancient world as a whole (PI. Ill,4). That this mosaic is unique was realized already by its excavator who notes the following characteristically: 

There is one unique pebble mosaic...which should be especially mentioned, since it is an opus prae-barbaricum and breaks all Greek laws of rythm and symmerty. It is art untrammeled by reason, perhaps done by a mosaicist of unsound mind (sic) but acquainted with symbolism.

It is a kind of hieroglyphic script, a forerunner of “Ars Memorativa” of the Renaissance akin to James Joyce in modern literature.”

Professor Robinson with the first thrill of the excavator, and a little rashly perhaps, proceeded to decide that 

“Wassily Kandisky is not the father of absract painting” 

and that this mosaic could be compared to works of Paul Klee. Actually, both the mosaic and the house where it was found as well as the place of it present interesting peculiarities not explained in the publication of the excavation. What interests us at the moment is to note its existence and to stress that archaeological research often presents us with charming problems that unlock for us the area of meditation, which precisely constitutes the final end of every intellectual discipline.

Olynthus Mosaic from House A xi 9 (excerpt from Lavin 2005)

No rime or reason may be discerned, except the realization that here the unnamed and untamed spirits reign supreme. The design conveys its profound, disturbing meaning precisely by its absence of design. 

It is a well-known tradition in ancient architectural decoration that the floor and the ceiling often reflect one another; here, like Alice’s mirror, the pavement becomes a window to a scintillating spatial realm that seems to dwarf our own.

Olynthus Mosaic from House A xi 9 (excerpt from Clement 1935)

One of the rooms of A xi 9 has a mosaic floor in which with black and wite pebbles are designed wheels of fortune, swastikas, maeanders, a double axe, etc. all scattered about in weird confusion.

Olynthus Mosaic from House A xi 9 (excerpt from Πουλακάκης 2009)

Εντελώς ξεχωριστή θέση ανάμεσα στα πρωιμότερα ψηφιδωτά της Ολύνθου κατέχει το δάπεδο στην αυλή μιας οικίας που χρονολογείται στο τέλος του 5ου ή τις αρχές του 4ου αιώνα π.Χ. (πίν. 15). Αναπτύσσονται με ελευθερία και χωρίς καμιά οργάνωση διάφορα διακοσμητικά μοτίβα, όπως ψαροκόκκαλο, τροχοί, ομόκεντροι ή απλοί κύκλοι, διπλοί πελέκεις, αγκυλωτοί σταυροί, απλοί ή εγγεγραμμένοι σε κύκλους ή τετράγωνα, λαβύρινθοι και διάφορα ακανόνιστα σχέδια (30).

Olynthus Mosaic from House A xi 9 (excerpt from Lavin 1990)

The entire gamut of expressive form and meaningful thought seems here encapsulated, at the very apogee of the classical period in Greece, when the great tradition of European high art was inaugurated. The Olynthus mosaics reveal the common ground-man's sense of the supernatural-that lies between the extremes of high and low to which we give terms like "mythology" and "superstition”.

Asarotos òikos mosaic (Ασάρωτος Οίκος, excerpt MVSEI VATICANI)

Asàrotos òikos mosaic[NOTE90]

This splendid mosaic, made up of tiny pieces of glass and coloured marble once decorated the floor of the dining room of a villa on the Aventine Hill in Rome at the time of the Emperor Hadrian. The decorative theme is that known as asàrotos òikos, or "the unswept floor", created in the second century B.C. by Sosos of Pergamon and here by the artist Heraclitus, who has signed his name. The artist has created a floor which seems to be covered with the debris of a banquet, the remains that would normally be swept away: one can identify fruit, lobster claws, chicken bones, shellfish and even a tiny mouse who is gnawing a walnut shell. The solidity of the objects shown has been created by a clever use of colour to create shadows against the white background of the floor. Where the room would originally have had an entrance there is a design with theatrical masks and ritual objects; at the centre there is part of a complex Nile scene.

Gordion mosaic with occult symbols (Expedition VII/3, 1964-1965, cover illustration)

Mosaic from Anaploga in Corinth (Miller 1972, p. 352)

If the panel was originally truly a scattering of motifs, it could be considered distantly related to the Hellenistic "unswept floor" mosaic by Sosos of Pergamon in which a floor was shown strewn with the debris of a banquet. [66] Scattered objects were also painted on a panel from Herculaneum (Ηράκλειον Καμπανίας), now in the Naples National Museum, in which figs and dates are spread out on steps.[67] The effect, however, was achieved by means of a well-organized disorder which has little to do with chance, and the objects, both in this painting and in the mosaic floor, have an internal relationship which gives a sort of thematic unity. A true scattering of unconnected motifs, often in varying scales with intermittent foliage, is a feature characteristic of later pavements dating to the second century after Christ and later. Typical of this development are two panels of the Seasons Mosaic at Zliten in the Villa di Dar Buc Ammera [68] where animals, birds, baskets, and fruits in varying scales are loosely combined with scattered bits of foliage covering the whole field.

Abstract Mosaic Reproduction - Wassily Kandinsky Mural

Mosaic having an optical effect

Decorative mosaics eventually developed patterns which were entirely meant to obtain an aesthetic effect with no links to real things or mythical personages. In essence it was an early form of abstract art. You may wish to see an almost identical mosaic at Dion where it was part of a frame.
(http://romeartlover.tripod.com/Thysdru2.html)

The Mosaics of Khirbet el-Mafjar: Hisham's Palace, By Hamdan Taha and Donald Whitcomb. 2015., p. 39, 41, A1

Villa of Dionysus - mosaic of the banquet chamber (Dion)

Several statues and other works of art depicting Dionysus have been found at Dion, but his name is attached to a large residential complex inside the walls, the main hall of which is covered by a complex mosaic having at its centre the god riding a chariot drawn by two panthers; the presence of so many references to this god is not due to strong religious feelings, but rather to a way of life (carpe diem) aimed at capturing the good things of life, as Dionysus was the inventor of wine and was associated with frenzied feasts.

Joan Miró, The Beautiful Bird Revealing the Unknown to a Pair of Lovers,  1941, The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Joan Miró, Birth of the World, 1925, The Museum of Modern Art, New York

MoMA’s description of The Family, from 1924, provides a glimpse into Miró’s thought process:


“‘I make no distinction between painting and poetry,’ asserted Miró. Adopting similar creative techniques to those of his poet friends, Miró developed a vocabulary of visual signs that could be compared to words. In drawing The Family, hieroglyphic forms symbolize a father, mother, and young child ‘glimpsed,’ as Miró described, ‘in the intimacy of their home.’ These imaginative characters are carefully placed within a faintly visible grid, in which the mother’s plant-like body acts as an anchor. The small flames extending from her heart, Miró indicated, stand for maternal love.”

Mosaic floor from a roman villa of ancient Corinth, showing Dionysos in the center.

Museum of Ancient Corinth, Greece

Abstract symbols, possibly representing celestial bodies, mythological creatures, animals and natural phenomena such as for example solar eclipse. - rich legacy of Chumash Cave

Monochrome mosaic panel of a skeleton holding two wine jugs, AD 1–50,Pompeii, House of the Vestals, 91 x 70 cm © Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli.

https://www.mixanitouxronou.gr/to-monadiko-archaio-elliniko-nomisma-me-quot-optiki-ofthalmapati-quot/

Το μοναδικό αρχαίο ελληνικό νόμισμα με “οπτική οφθαλμαπάτη”. Πού κυκλοφόρησαν οι δύο αντικριστές γυναικείες κεφαλές του συνεργάτη μας ιστορικού Κωνσταντίνου Λαγού Τον 6ο και 5ο αιώνα π. Χ. η πόλη της Μυτιλήνης εξέδωσε νομίσματα που η υποδιαίρεσή τους ήταν το 1/6 του στατήρα και για το λόγο αυτό η αξία τους ήταν γνωστή ως “έκτη”. Το μέταλλο των νομισμάτων αυτών είναι από ήλεκτρο, δηλαδή κράμα χρυσού και αργύρου. Αρκετές εκδόσεις...

Διαβάστε όλο το άρθρο: http://www.mixanitouxronou.gr/to-monadiko-archaio-elliniko-nomisma-me-quot-optiki-ofthalmapati-quot/

NOTES

WIKIPEDIA

The art of memory (Latin: ars memoriae) is any of a number of loosely associated mnemonic principles and techniques used to organize memory impressions, improve recall, and assist in the combination and 'invention' of ideas. An alternative and frequently used term is "Ars Memorativa" which is also often translated as "art of memory" although its more literal meaning is "Memorative Art".

[NOTE90]. Seaman 2020, pp. 110-131. Ο ερευνητής σημειώνει επί λέξει: As a dining-related entertainment, the Unswept Room mosaic plays with the concepts of mimesis (real-life imitation) and phantasia (imagination), blurring the lines between any actual refuse on the floor (or its possibility) and the “sophisticated, eye-dazzling creation of Sosos’s own mind” 

ήτοι

Ως ψυχαγωγία που σχετίζεται με το φαγητό, το μωσαϊκό του Ασάρωτου Δωματίου παίζει με τις έννοιες της μιμήσεως (πραγματική μίμηση) και της φαντασίας (φαντασία), θολώνοντας τα όρια μεταξύ οποιουδήποτε πραγματικού απορρίμματος στο πάτωμα (ή της δυνατότητάς του) και της «εκλεπτυσμένης, - εκθαμβωτικής νοητικής δημιουργίας του ίδιου του μυαλού του Σώσου".

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Andronicos, M. 1964. “Ancient Greek Painting and Mosaics in Macedonia,” Balkan studies 5, Thessalonikē, pp. 287-302.

Lavin, I. 2005. “Reason and Unreason at Olynthus,” in La mosaïque gréco-romaine IX Actes du IXe colloque international pour l’ etude de la mosaique antique et médievale II, ed. H. Morlier, Rome, pp. 933-940.

Νεκτάριος Μ. Πουλακάκης, Ν. Μ. 2009. "Ψηφιδωτά δάπεδα στη Μακεδονία κατά την Κλασική και Ελληνιστική εποχή," Μελετήματα Ημαθίας 1, σελ. 29-80.

Lavin, I. 1990. “High and Low before their Time: Bernini and the Art of Social Satire,” in Modern art and popular culture: readings in high & low, ed. K. Varnedoe, and A. Gopnik, New York, pp. 18-52.

Miller, S. G. 1972. “A Mosaic Floor from a Roman Villa at Anaploga,” Hesperia 41 (3), pp. 332-354.

Schwartz, H. 2018. "Finding the Poetry in Joan Miró: Birth of the World," Daily Art Magazine, <
https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/finding-the-poetry-in-joan-miro-birth-of-the-world/> (19 December 2019).

Alain.R.Truong > Archéologie & Antiquiities > Last supper in Pompeii at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 26 juillet 2019, Last supper in Pompeii at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

http://www.alaintruong.com/archives/2019/07/26/37523137.html

https://www.academia.edu/12102557/The_Mosaics_of_Khirbet_el-Mafjar_Hishams_Palace

Hamdan Taha and D. Whitcomb. 2015. The Mosaics of Khirbet el-Mafjar: Hisham's Palace, Ramalah / Chicago.

https://oi.uchicago.edu/sites/oi.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/shared/docs/misc-Hisham-mosaics.pdf

https://www.getty.edu/publications/romanmosaics/catalogue/syria/

Syrian Mosaics

https://dokumen.pub/qdownload/rhetoric-and-innovation-in-hellenistic-art-1108490913-9781108490917.html

Seaman, K. 2020. Rhetoric and Innovation in Hellenistic Art, Cambridhe University Press.

Βλ. το βιβλίο Ο ΚΙΝΕΖΙΚΟΣ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΣΜΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΟΙ ΕΛΛΑΔΙΚΕΣ ΕΠΙΔΡΑΣΕΙΣ, διατιθέμενο από την lulu.com και τον συγγραφέα (omada5a3@gmail.com)

τελευταία ανανέωση / εμπλουτισμός 10.10.2023