Opus sectile

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The floor mosaic made of heavily marbled stone slabs shows a symbol of the sun: In the middle an ocher-colored sun disk with a thin black border, starting with 16 rust-red rays (pointed triangles), embedded in an outer white disk. This sun disk is in turn surrounded by an ocher-colored square with four smaller black squares in the four corners.
Opus sectile in the Piccole Terme of Villa Adriana
A floor mosaic made of marble triangles and squares of various sizes and colors (brown, red and blue tones); The result is a pattern of horizontal, vertical and diagonal joints, with squares and triangles in between in orthogonal and diagonal alignment.
Floor in Opus Sectile in Herculaneum
In this floor mosaic, differently shaped, triangular marble slabs form a decorative, regular pattern in which they join together to form square and rectangular areas. The plates are either beige-colored and heavily marbled, black and lightly speckled or rust-red and evenly colored
Opus sectile from the Villa Adriana

Opus sectile ( Latin for "cut work") describes an artistic technique popular in ancient Rome , in which various materials were cut into pieces and placed in walls or floors in order to form an image or pattern. The starting material -  marble , mother-of-pearl or glass  - was cut into thin slabs, polished and cut again according to the design project. In contrast to the mosaic , which consists of a large number of uniformly large pieces, the pieces in the opus sectile are much larger and can already represent large parts of the design.

origin

Although early examples were found in Egypt and Asia Minor , the most prominent artifacts come from 4th century Rome . A large specimen from the basilica of the Roman consul Iunius Bassus , depicting a chariot , has been preserved . Opus sectile's popularity continued in Rome into the 6th century , eventually reaching Constantinople (today's Istanbul in Turkey ).

Examples

One of the most important works in opus sectile technique is the gold glass table by Caesarea Maritima , which was found during excavations in a pompous villa on the outskirts of Caesarea Maritima in 2005 and dates from the late Roman period. The frame of the mosaic is made up of gold glass tiles and tiles made of turquoise, opaque glass, the central field is made up of squares, triangles and narrow rectangles made of glass, which join together to form a geometric pattern. The square gold glass plates have relief decorations and represent crosses and rosettes.

Newer use

While the opus sectile technique eventually disappeared in Rome, it continued to be used in the Byzantine churches, mainly in the floors. It was also cultivated by the Greeks who may have brought it to Italy and Sicily in the 12th century .

See also

literature

  • Liz James: Opus sectile . Grove Art Online, Oxford University Press.

Web links

Commons : Opus sectile  - collection of images, videos and audio files