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42-547: The standard depiction in Roman mosaic scenes (for the Romano-British variant see below) shows him seated and playing a lyre or cithara , wearing a Phrygian cap , often beside a tree, and includes many animals drawn and pacified by his playing. The fox was considered Orpheus's special animal and may be placed beside him. In large examples the animals spread to occupy the whole floor of a room. Titles such as Orpheus Charming/Taming

84-590: A terrorist attack when three terrorists in civil uniform attacked the Bardo National Museum in the Tunisian capital city of Tunis, and took hostages. Twenty-one people, mostly European tourists, were killed at the scene, while an additional victim died ten days later. Around fifty others were injured. This attack took place after the famous Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris where many journalists were killed Two of

126-466: A central or important position in the main panel. In May 2020, the discovery of a well-preserved Roman mosaic floor dating to the 3rd century AD buried underneath a vineyard at Negrar is reported after about a century of searching the site of a long-lost villa. In October 2022, a 1,600-year-old intact Roman mosaic measuring 20 x 6 metres was found under a building in Al-Rastan , Syria. Al-Rastan,

168-566: A city near Homs in Syria that was held by rebels until 2018. The building was being excavated by Syria's General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums, and was donated by the Lebanese Nabu Museum to the Syrian state. At the time of excavation, it was unclear whether the building which housed the mosaic was a public bathhouse or something else. The mosaic showed mythical scenes including portraying

210-580: A floor there. The Corinium (that is, modern Cirencester ) example gives its name to the "Corinium Orpheus School" of Romano-British mosaic artists. The Littlecote mosaic in particular, which seems to have been added to a room used as some kind of private space for religious cult, has been suggested as evidencing a syncretic cult of Orpheus, Apollo and Bacchus. There are two other circular Orpheus mosaics, in Volubilis in present-day Morocco , and Mérida in Spain, but

252-524: A rich collection of marble statues representing the gods and Roman emperors found on various sites including those of Carthage and Thuburbo Majus . The Bardo has also rich pieces discovered during the excavations of Libyco- Punic sites including mainly Carthage , although the Carthage National Museum also possesses an important collection. The main parts of this department are grimacing masks, terracotta statues and stelae of major interest for

294-650: A variety of private and public buildings, on both floors and walls, though they competed with cheaper frescos for the latter. They were highly influenced by earlier and contemporary Hellenistic Greek mosaics, and often included famous figures from history and mythology, such as Alexander the Great in the Alexander Mosaic . A large proportion of the surviving examples of wall mosaics come from Italian sites such as Pompeii and Herculaneum . Otherwise, floor mosaics are far more likely to have survived, with many coming from

336-587: A villa at Hinton St Mary , Dorset , England, which shows Christ with a Chi-Rho behind his head. The mosaic is now in the British Museum . Orpheus mosaics , which often include many animals drawn by the god's playing, are very common; he was also used in Early Christian art as a symbol for Christ. Scenes of Dionysus are another common subject. As the Roman period merged into Late Antiquity , wall mosaics became

378-469: A wide variety of archaeological pieces. Being in the former palace, it offers many major works discovered since the beginnings of archaeological research in the country. Originally called Museum Alaoui (المتحف العلوي), the name of the reigning bey at the time, it has had its current name of Museum of Bardo only since the country's independence. In addition to famous works such as the Blue Koran of Kairouan ,

420-585: Is contradicted by Ruth Westgate, who contends that the earliest tessellated mosaics of the Hellenistic period date to the 3rd century BC, with the 2nd to early 1st-century BC mosaics of Delos constituting roughly half of the known examples. Hetty Joyce and Katherine M. D. Dunbabin concur with this assessment, asserting that the transition from pebble mosaics to more complex tessellated mosaics originated in Hellenistic- Greek Sicily during

462-646: Is one of the most important museums in the Mediterranean region and the second museum of the African continent after the Egyptian Museum of Cairo by richness of its collections. It traces the history of Tunisia over several millennia and across several civilizations through a wide variety of archaeological pieces . First proposed in the 1860s by Muhammad Khaznadar , the son of the Prime Minister of Tunisia ,

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504-681: The House of the Faun , Pompeii depicts the Battle of Issus between Alexander the Great and Darius III . In addition to famous people from antiquity, mosaics can depict aspects of daily life. The Gladiator Mosaic from Rome depicts a fighting scene, naming each gladiator involved. A gladiatorial scene is also known from Leptis Magna . Roman portrait mosaics, as well as Roman portraits in general, often depicted men and women with similar physical features or attire. This practice became especially commonplace during

546-522: The National Museum of Carthage is the primary museum of the Carthage archaeological site. The essential pieces of this department are grimacing masks, terracotta statues and stelae of major interest for Semitic epigraphy , and the stele of the priest and the child. The museum also houses Greek works discovered especially in the excavations of the shipwreck of Mahdia , whose emblematic piece remains

588-529: The Virgil Mosaic , represent a unique source for research on everyday life in Roman Africa . From the Roman era, the museum also contains a rich collection of marble statues representing the deities and the Roman emperors found on different sites including those of Carthage and Thuburbo Majus . The museum also houses pieces discovered during the excavations of Libyco - Punic sites including Carthage, although

630-591: The fringes of the Roman Empire . The Bardo National Museum in Tunis has an especially large collection from large villas in modern Tunisia . Perhaps the earliest examples of Greco-Roman mosaic floors date to the late Republican period (2nd century BC) and are from Delos , Greece. Witts claims that tessellated pavements, using tesserae , were used in Europe from the late fifth to early fourth centuries BC. This

672-420: The reigning bey at the time, it takes its current name of Bardo Museum after the independence of the country even if the denomination is attested before that date. The museum houses one of the largest collections of Roman mosaics in the world, thanks to excavations in various archaeological sites in the country including Carthage , Hadrumetum , Dougga and Utica . Generally, the mosaics of Bardo, such as

714-552: The 3rd century BC, developed at sites such as Morgantina and Syracuse . The earliest known pebble mosaics and use of chip pavement are found at Olynthus in Greece's Chalcidice , dated to the 5th to 4th centuries BC, while other examples can be found at Pella , capital of Macedon , dated to the 4th century BC. The earliest mosaics of Roman Pompeii , dated to the Pompeian First Style of wall painting in

756-503: The Beasts may be used. Usually the whole scene occupies the same space, but sometimes Orpheus and the animals are each in compartments separated by borders with geometrical decoration. In such cases the compartments with animals are very similar to those in other mosaics with no central figure. An alternative composition shows Dionysus (Bacchus) as the central figure, surrounded by animals, more lively than those around Orpheus. An example of

798-510: The Imperial Period and dates back to as early as 18 BC. There is evidence for this in a series of Denarii (Roman silver coins), which portray the goddess Virtus with recognizable Augustan features. One common type of Roman mosaics are geometric mosaics, which there is evidence for all across the Roman Empire. Geometric mosaics are often made up of intricate patterns in the style of mazes or labyrinths. There are 57 known floor mosaics in

840-544: The Islamic Department contains a collection of ceramics from North Africa and Asia Minor . The Bardo brings together one of the finest and largest collections of Roman mosaics in the world thanks to the excavations undertaken from the beginning of the 20th century on archaeological sites in the country including Carthage , Hadrumetum , Dougga , or Utica . The mosaics represent a unique source for research on everyday life in Roman Africa . The museum also contains

882-462: The Roman sea god Neptune and 40 of his mistresses, as well as Hercules slaying the Amazon queen Hippolyta . Bardo National Museum (Tunis) The Bardo National Museum ( Arabic : المتحف الوطني بباردو , romanized :  el-Metḥef el-Waṭanī bi-Bārdū ; French : Musée national du Bardo ) or Bardo Palace is a museum of Tunis , Tunisia , located in the suburbs of Le Bardo . It

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924-509: The Semitic epigraphy, the stele of the priest and the child being the most famous. The museum also houses Greek works discovered in particular in the excavations of the ship of Mahdia, whose iconic piece is a marble bust of Aphrodite. The museum underwent a major refurbishment, completed in 2012, that was interrupted due to the Tunisian revolution . The expansion, which added 9,000 square meters to

966-501: The additions of cut brick, tile and pottery creating coloured shades of, predominantly, blue, black, red, white and yellow. Polychrome patterns were most common, but monochrome examples are known. Marble and glass were occasionally used as tesserae, as were small pebbles, and precious metals like gold . Mosaic decoration was not just confined to floors but featured on walls and vaults as well. Traces of guidelines have been found beneath some mosaics, either scored into or painted onto

1008-550: The animals with the punishment of criminals by damnatio ad bestias . In what appears to be a unique feature of Orpheus mosaics from Roman Britain , the animals may be arranged parading in a circle around him, feet facing out, so that some are the right way up whatever angle the floor is seen from; nine examples are known. The subject is found, for example, in Woodchester in England, the second largest of its kind in Europe and one of

1050-579: The building. The attack, which killed 22 people including 21 foreign tourists, was claimed by ISIS . The Bardo National Museum building was originally a 15th-century Hafsid palace, located in the suburbs of Tunis . The Bardo is one of the most important museums of the Mediterranean basin , and the second largest on the African continent after the Egyptian Museum . It traces the history of Tunisia over several millennia and through many civilizations through

1092-507: The bust of Aphrodite in marble, gnawed by the sea. The Islamic Department contains, in addition to famous works such as the Blue Qur'an of Kairouan , a collection of ceramics from the Maghreb and Anatolia . In order to increase the reception capacity and optimize the presentation of the collections, the museum is the subject of a vast operation which was to be completed initially in 2011 but

1134-529: The complex, was designed by SCPA Codou-Hindley (France) and Amira Nouira (Tunisia). Considerable funding came from the World Bank . It contains a major collection of Roman mosaics and other antiquities of interest from Ancient Greece , Carthage , Tunisia , and the Islamic period. The museum displays objects ranging from pre-historical artifacts to modern jewelry . On 18 March 2015, 24 people were killed in

1176-1059: The compositions are different. A large example takes up all the floor of a room in the Villa Romana del Casale , Piazza Armerina , Sicily, one of the finest sites for mosaics. Other notable examples are in Leptis Magna in Libya ( in situ ), and in Palermo , Arles , the Musée gallo-romain in Saint-Romain-en-Gal Vienne , Perugia and the Bardo National Museum (Tunis) . A new Orpheus mosaic has recently been found in Prusias ad Hypium , near present-day Duzce in Turkey. The example in Zaragoza , now in

1218-406: The dominant form of art in grand churches, and the gold-ground style became usual. Italy has a high proportion of the surviving examples. Progression within the mosaic technique developed the emblem, the "heart" of all mosaics. The word emblem is used to describe a small mosaic featuring a little genre scene or still life, characterised by particularly thin tesserae made separately and mounted in

1260-439: The gunmen, Tunisian citizens Yassine Labidi and Saber Khachnaoui, were killed by police, while the third attacker is currently at large. Police treated the event as a terrorist attack . It was the deadliest terrorist attack in Tunisian history; surpassing the 2002 Ghriba synagogue bombing , which killed nineteen people, most of whom were also European tourists, and injured more than thirty others. Starting from June 17, 2014,

1302-523: The hallmark of mosaic art in the Late Imperial period . The mosaic decoration of the local palace complex culminates in the gallery, which contains a scene of animal hunting and fighting covering an area of 3,200 square feet (300 m ). Roman mosaics are constructed from geometrical blocks called tesserae , placed together to create the shapes of figures, motifs and patterns. Materials for tesserae were obtained from local sources of natural stone, with

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1344-567: The largest being again at Apamea). These are, at least initially, drawn from the popular venatio ("hunting") displays in the amphitheatres , where a variety of exotic beasts were released to fight and be killed. Despite the contrast in atmosphere, the Berlin mosaic from a house in Miletus manages to combine both a venatio and an Orpheus with animals in its two parts. An arena programme recorded by Martial combined an acted-out scene of Orpheus charming

1386-611: The late 2nd and early 1st centuries BC, were clearly derived from the Hellenistic Greek model . However, they contained far more figured scenes on average, less abstract design, the absence of lead strips, as well as an almost complete lack of complex, three-dimensional scenes utilizing polychromy until the Pompeian Second Style of wall painting (80–20 BC). The mosaics in the Villa Romana del Casale ( c.  300 AD ) from Roman Sicily perhaps represent

1428-427: The maze. On their way to bathe, athletes likely would walk through these mazes on their way to bathe in preparation for competition. The experience of walking along the labyrinth pattern would have likely heightened the senses, as the participants would be acutely aware of their feet along the mosaic on the floor. One of the earliest examples of Early Christian art in mosaic is the early 4th-century floor mosaic from

1470-496: The mortar bedding. The design might also be pegged out in string, or mounted in a wooden frame. The collapse of buildings in antiquity can, paradoxically, both irrevocably destroy mosaics or protect and preserve them. Roman mosaics frequently depicted religious figures, theatrical scenes, mythological stories, geometric labyrinth patterns, and other decorative designs. Imagery of famous individuals or entertaining scenes are common on Roman mosaics. The Alexander Mosaic from

1512-628: The most intricate. It dates to c. AD 325 and was re-discovered by Gloucestershire-born antiquarian Samuel Lysons in 1793. It has been uncovered seven times since 1880, the last time in 1973, but there are no plans to reveal it again. Other English examples are at Littlecote Roman Villa , Brading Roman Villa , and the Corinium Museum . Another, from Newton St Loe , is now in Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery , but between 1841 and 1851 had been moved to Keynsham railway station , and set in

1554-607: The museum is housed in an old beylical palace since 1888, it has been the setting for the exhibition of many major works discovered since the beginning of archaeological research in the country. This historic building also serves as the seat of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People , Tunisia 's Lower house . Originally called Alaoui Museum ( Arabic : المتحف العلوي , romanized :  al-Matḥaf al-ʿAlawī ), named after

1596-450: The museum offers visitors a digital guide in English , French , and Arabic . Developed by Orange Tunisia using Near-field communication technology, it comes in the form of a free downloadable application for smartphones and visitors can also borrow a free smartphone at the museum entrance. It offers audio commentaries, photo slideshows, and a historical and geographical perspective of

1638-548: The museum, came from the "Casa de Orfeo", which was located next to the Roman walls near the central market in Caesaraugusta, as the city was called. Unusually, the figure of Orpheus is surrounded by birds only, with a single snake, while below only big cats are shown. Roman mosaic A Roman mosaic is a mosaic made during the Roman period, throughout the Roman Republic and later Empire . Mosaics were used in

1680-565: The style of labyrinths, and the majority of them are found in private homes or bathhouses. All 57 were catalogued in 1977 by German archaeologist, Wiktor Daszewski. Scholar Rebecca Molholt discusses the reasoning behind why so many of the known maze mosaics were found in bathhouses. Maze mosaics were believed to have apotropaic powers and this is reflected in many mosaics which incorporate scenes of mythical creatures or stories. Furthermore, labyrinth mosaics were considered to be bearers of good luck for those who could successfully make their way through

1722-599: The usual composition with animals in the 6th-century Gaza synagogue is identified as David by an inscription in Hebrew, and has added royal attributes. Another adaptation is a Christian mosaic of Adam giving names to the animals ( Genesis 2: 19–20) in a church of around 486–502 in Apamea, Syria . Some of the mosaics seem to relate to the rather elusive philosophical or religious doctrines of Orphism . In Byzantine mosaic large scenes with animals tended to be hunting scenes (one of

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1764-488: Was not finished until 2012 due to the Tunisian Revolution . The work concerns the increase of the exhibition surfaces by adding new buildings and redeploying the collections. The project aims to make the museum a major pole for a quality cultural development, so that the visitor can appreciate the artistic pieces deposited. On March 18, 2015, an Islamist terrorist group attacked the museum and took tourists hostage in

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