Hunting Scenes - I
The mosaic, which probably once decorated a portico, depicts wild animal capture for circus games, and wild-boar hunting.
The mosaic is arranged in three different hunting scenes interrupted by outlined landscapes. The first two scenes, overlapping without any prospective concern, show some hunters on foot pursuing animals. They wear short tunics with cloaks and boots that protect their legs up to the knee. The hunted animals are rendered with great visual efficacy: they are antelopes and gazelles, in the upper scene, and bears in the lower one. All the moments of the capture are described: the beginning of the hunt, the pursuit of the animals, the help of dogs to push them in the desired direction and their capture by means of cages or nets tied to the trees.
In the third scene a character on horseback pierces a boar with his spear. His clothing denotes the high rank of the horseman, and the short beard makes it similar to a philosopher or a scholar. This portrayal depicts certainly a “vir clarissimus”, member of the senatorial class, and the scene qualifies this character both as an intellectual as a man of action.
Roman mosaic
Ca. 15 m x 9 m
Early 4th century AD
Found in Rome, Horti Licicniani
Musei Capitolini, Centrale Montemartini, Inv. Ant. Com. 3636
Hunting Scenes - I
The mosaic, which probably once decorated a portico, depicts wild animal capture for circus games, and wild-boar hunting.
The mosaic is arranged in three different hunting scenes interrupted by outlined landscapes. The first two scenes, overlapping without any prospective concern, show some hunters on foot pursuing animals. They wear short tunics with cloaks and boots that protect their legs up to the knee. The hunted animals are rendered with great visual efficacy: they are antelopes and gazelles, in the upper scene, and bears in the lower one. All the moments of the capture are described: the beginning of the hunt, the pursuit of the animals, the help of dogs to push them in the desired direction and their capture by means of cages or nets tied to the trees.
In the third scene a character on horseback pierces a boar with his spear. His clothing denotes the high rank of the horseman, and the short beard makes it similar to a philosopher or a scholar. This portrayal depicts certainly a “vir clarissimus”, member of the senatorial class, and the scene qualifies this character both as an intellectual as a man of action.
Roman mosaic
Ca. 15 m x 9 m
Early 4th century AD
Found in Rome, Horti Licicniani
Musei Capitolini, Centrale Montemartini, Inv. Ant. Com. 3636