CIRCA 3RD-4TH CENTURY A.D.

Name: A LATE ROMAN MARBLE MOSAIC FRAGMENT WITH A SEA GODDESS
Brand: CIRCA 3RD-4TH CENTURY A.D.
Price: 45000.00 USD
Availability: SoldOut

Price Realised USD 56,250

Estimate

USD 20,000 - USD 30,000

Closed: 16 Jun 2020

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A LATE ROMAN MARBLE MOSAIC FRAGMENT WITH A SEA GODDESS

CIRCA 3RD-4TH CENTURY A.D.

Price Realised USD 56,250

Closed: 16 Jun 2020

Price Realised USD 56,250

Closed: 16 Jun 2020

Details Lot Essay Related Articles More from

42¹⁄₂ in. (107.9 cm.) high

with Spink & Son, London (Octagon, Spring 1967, p. 15).
Acquired by the current owner from the above, 1967.

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Lot Essay

While her precise identification is unknown, the goddess' association to the sea is confirmed by the rows of undulating waves in the background. A mosaic at Dumbarton Oaks depicts Tethys, the daughter of Uranus and Gaia, with wings in her long hair, while another related work depicts Thalassa, the Spirit of the sea, with crustacean claws emerging from her head (figs. 1 and 6 in S.M. Wages, “A Note on the Dumbarton Oaks 'Tethys Mosaic,’” 40, 1986). Indeed, the distinction between the two goddesses is not so straightforward: as Wages notes (op. cit., p. 125), the Tethys’ iconography evolved over the course of the 3rd-5th centuries whereby then she is completely merged with Thalassa. Mosaics related to the sea were popular across the Roman empire and were routinely placed in baths, fountains and nymphaea (see p. 77 in U. Pappalardo and R. Ciardiello, ).