From time to time I do see mosaics sold in shops marked as 'Roman' when this is incorrect. So I thought, if you're interested I'd explain why there is a difference and just give you one example for you to quickly tell if a copy is accurate, (pauses whilst gets behind lecturn, shuffles papers, coughs then...)
The Romans made their mosaics so nothing would stand out, ie the mosaic would 'flow', there would be no areas to distract the eye. To this end they used a set of rules (sometimes refered to as Andamento), about 9 in number, 3 very specific, 6 more general ones.
Look at any Roman mosaic of a figure and you will see a line of tiles (tesserae) in the same colour as the border (generally white) around the figure. Every single mosaic figure from anywhere in the Roman Empire should have this border. A flower should also have this border and you will see it in geometric mosaics too. To illustrate, image a mosaic floor, in white with just one black triangle in the centre. The background tesserae are set in horizontal lines, there should be a single line of the white tesserae around the black triangle. Inside the triangle the black outline should be created by a line of black tesserae, the space left inside is then filled with horizontal lines of black. 2 borderlines in use, without these it is incorrect.
Have a look for this borderline in original Roman mosaics and if you see any copies being sold in shops or online look for this, if it's not there it's not Roman.
Ok waffle over, this was just a quick piece, if you want to know more just get in touch.
The Romans made their mosaics so nothing would stand out, ie the mosaic would 'flow', there would be no areas to distract the eye. To this end they used a set of rules (sometimes refered to as Andamento), about 9 in number, 3 very specific, 6 more general ones.
Look at any Roman mosaic of a figure and you will see a line of tiles (tesserae) in the same colour as the border (generally white) around the figure. Every single mosaic figure from anywhere in the Roman Empire should have this border. A flower should also have this border and you will see it in geometric mosaics too. To illustrate, image a mosaic floor, in white with just one black triangle in the centre. The background tesserae are set in horizontal lines, there should be a single line of the white tesserae around the black triangle. Inside the triangle the black outline should be created by a line of black tesserae, the space left inside is then filled with horizontal lines of black. 2 borderlines in use, without these it is incorrect.
Have a look for this borderline in original Roman mosaics and if you see any copies being sold in shops or online look for this, if it's not there it's not Roman.
Ok waffle over, this was just a quick piece, if you want to know more just get in touch.
