Mosaic Fragment with a Bust of Erato Artist: UnknownRoman

late 2nd–early 3rd century A.D.

Ancient Art

On view, 1st floor, Dura-Europos

This fragment, along with 2004.2.1–.3 and 2004.2.5, was once part of a much larger mosaic on the floor of a triclinium (dining room) of a Roman house in the ancient city of Gerasa. In the procession, revelers accompany centaurs drawing Dionysos and his consort Ariadne on a cart. Below, Erato, muse of erotic poetry and mime, plays a lyre, while Euterpe, muse of lyric poetry, holds two auloi (reed instruments much like oboes). More than twenty other fragments of this floor exist today, the majority of which are in Berlin. The Gallery’s fragments were discovered in 1927, following earlier excavations in 1907.

Medium

Mosaic: limestone and glass tesserae

Dimensions

27 1/2 × 35 in. (69.9 × 88.9 cm)

Credit Line

Ruth Elizabeth White Fund

Accession Number

2004.2.4

Geography

Excavated in Gerasa, Jordan

Culture

Gerasa (Jordan)

Period

Roman

Classification

Mosaic

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Discovered and excavated at Gerasa before 1927, when purchased (as a group of 10 fragments) from a dealer in Damascus, by Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark; collection of the Stark Museum of Art in Orange, Texas; collection of a New York Corporation; Sotheby's NY 12/9/2003 lot #74.
Bibliography
  • Richard A. Grossmann, "A New Reconstruction of a Mosaic from Gerasa," in "Photography at Yale," special issue, Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2006), 149–53, fig. 1
  • "Acquisitions 2004," in "African Art at Yale," special issue, Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2005), 152–53, ill
  • Rina Talgam and Ze'ev Weiss, "The Mosaics in the House of Dionysos at Sepphoris," Qedem 44 (2003), 5–7
  • Christine Kondoleon, Domestic and Divine: Roman Mosaics in the House of Dionysos (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1995), 215–17
  • Dela von Boeselager, "Zum Mosaik aus Gerasa: Fifth International Colloqium on Ancient Mosaics," Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplementary Series 9 (1995), 57–63
  • Michele Piccirillo, The Mosaics of Jordan (Amman, Jordan: American Center of Oriental Research, 1993), 282–83
  • Michele Piccirillo, I mosaici di Giordania (Rome: Quasar, 1986), 107
  • Hetty Joyce, "Dionysiac Artists and Cult Practices in a Mosaic from Gerasa," American Journal of Archaeology 84, no. 2 (1980), 215–16
  • Professor Paul V. C. Baur, Gerasa: City of the Decapolis, ed. Carl H. Kraeling (New Haven, Conn.: American Schools of Oriental Research, 1938), 351–52, 458–59
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

fragments, mosaics

Inscriptions

EWN ([Anacr]eon) \r\nEPATW (Erato)

Technical metadata and APIs

IIIF

Open in Mirador

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