Founder mosaic of the governor Ursus
The founder mosaic of the governor Ursus is an early Christian mosaic in the memorial church of the Roman city of Teurnia in today's Carinthia , which was excavated by Rudolf Egger from 1910 to 1911 . The mosaic is now - protected by a building - at the site. Like the church, it is dated to the middle to second half of the fifth century. Apart from the mosaics from the churches at Hemmaberg , no other early Christian mosaics are known in Austria today.
The mosaic is located in the south side chapel and covers the lay room of the chapel. It is 6.10 × 4.25 m in size and shows just as many motifs in twelve fields. The motifs are oriented towards the entrance and are arranged in four rows of three pictures. J. Hagenauer interpreted the motifs in their religious context using the Bible and texts by the church fathers . An explanation of an image program has come down to us from Paulinus von Nola , for example .
First row
The first row, seen from the entrance, shows a white stork in the middle against a black background, picking up a lizard by its tail. Following the physiologus , the stork means Christ who lifts sinful man up to light. The left field shows two rabbits in a field that is framed by a running dog broken down into individual elements . The same frame can be found for several fields. The rabbit can be equated with a pagan, according to Hesychius with the catechumene or according to Augustine with the sinner. Following the physiologus would be a hare that saves itself to Christ, the one running in the opposite direction that running after the earthly. The right field shows a checkerboard pattern that cannot be interpreted according to any written source. The white and black fields could symbolize the fight between good and evil, while the red fields indicate God's intervention.
The fields in the first row illustrate the fight between good and evil.
Left: two hares.
Middle: Stork picks up a lizard.
Right: checkerboard pattern.
Second row
The middle field shows a tree with birds sitting in the branches. The tree symbolizes the church or the kingdom of God. It is based on the parable in Matthew about the mustard seed. With Jerome the branches became the doctrines of the Church, the birds became souls, with Hilary of Poitiers the branches were the apostles, the birds the peoples. The left field shows a cow, which is a symbol for the apostles several times, as in Augustine and in the first letter to the Corinthians . The right field shows a mother duck with her young. Based on the parable of hen and chick in Matthew , the image stands for the mother church with her believers. The second row thus refers to “the Church, the kingdom of God and its proclamation through apostolic activity”.
Left: beef.
Middle: tree with birds.
Right: mother duck with young.
Third row
In the third row, from left to right, there is the donor's inscription, a chalice with a dove and a stag. The stag corresponds to the frequent early Christian depiction of two stags coming to a well, based on the baptismal psalm As the stag thirsts for the spring water, so my soul thirsts for you, oh Lord. Instead of the second deer, the donor's inscription was placed here, which means that they take the place of the deer. The water of the Psalm is here replaced by the dove, an early Christian symbol of Christ. The chalice and dove thus correspond to the sacrament of baptism and / or the altar. The two snakes to the left and right of the chalice symbolize evil.
The inscription reads: Urs (u) sv (ir) s (pectabilis) / cum con / i (u) g (e) sua Ursina / pro (v) oto sus (cepto) / fecer (u) nt h (a) ec (Ursus, vir spectabilis, and his wife Ursina had this (mosaic) made based on a vow they had taken). The honorary title vir spectabilis was only available to high civil servants, in the province to the governor, which is why Ursus is regarded as governor, and indeed as one of the last in the province of Inner Noricum . The names Ursus and Ursina are quite common in Noricum, 43 names with the tribe Urs- are known in the area of today's Carinthia alone .
Left: donor inscription
Middle: chalice with dove
Right: deer
Fourth row
The left field shows an eagle, which the Fathers of the Church Hieronymus and Ambrose is often synonymous with Christ: Christ protects his believers against the devil as the eagle protects his young against the snake. The middle field shows a doe suckling its young. The hind is already described in the Old Testament as a symbol of motherly love, which suggests that the hind is equated with the church or God. The right field shows a heron or stork fighting a snake, based on Psalm 91:13, a symbol for Christ as the victor over the devil.
The last three fields all show Christ's victory over evil. This results in an increase from the entrance with the turning to the light, through the spread of faith in the second row and the sacraments in the third row to the victory of Christ in the altar area.
Left: eagle
Middle: suckling hind
Right: heron or stork fights with a snake
The mosaic is finished with a border. it consists of circles and squares on a black background, semicircles and crenellated meanders. There is a row of swastikas on the northern edge. They can be seen as the dissolution of a swastika meander, a common motif in Roman mosaics. As with the running dog, the otherwise connected ornaments were broken down into their individual parts.
supporting documents
- Franz Glaser: Teurnia. Roman city and bishopric . Verlag des Geschichtsverein für Kärnten, Klagenfurt 1992, pp. 81–89. (without ISBN)
- Franz Glaser: St. Peter in Wood - Teurnia . In: Gernot Piccottini : The Romans in Carinthia . Carinthia, Klagenfurt 1989, pp. 127-132. ISBN 3-85378-333-3