A Scroll for a Count - Part the First

If I've set this up correctly, you should be reading this post the day after this "scroll" has gone out in court, but I'll have been working on it for a month and a half.  This is my journey for the Count scroll for His Excellency, Count Ioannes.

I requested this scroll ages ago and had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do with it.  You see, Romans can make beautiful sculptures [1]:

Beautiful architecture [2]:

Beautiful frescoes[3]:

Beautiful mosaics [4]:

But, it is my opinion that their "paperwork" sucks [5]:

Ok, so maybe sucks is a harsh word.  After all, codices came to the party late in the Empire, but still, in comparison to their other art forms, their paint on paper is, for me, wanting.  I have done scrolls in a Roman style in the past.  This piece for Anna Serena was the first scroll of mine that I got to see go out in a court.  It was inspired by a Roman mosaic floor from Macedonia.

This time though, I want to do something spectacular.  Something outrageous.  Something that takes a couple of strong young men to carry into court.  Something terrifying for me.

I want to do a mosaic.

Having never done a mosaic before, I turned to someone who has done many - my mother-in-law, who promptly loaded me up with some books to browse through.

Mosaics In Rome

Mosaics have been an art form for 5000 years and have been used to create decorative floors, ceilings, and furniture.   Part of the reason that there are so many surviving mosaics in excellent condition is because of their use as a flooring and durable materials like stone and glass.  When buildings collapsed, either from disrepair or natural catastrophe, the rubble kept the floors protected until they were uncovered.  [6]

Romans were able to create very intricate works of art with a surprisingly limited color palate. In the Alexander Mosaic from Rome in the second century, we see that incredible detail can be achieved using tesserae (small blocks of stone, tile, or glass used in mosaics) in shades of black, white, yellow, and brown. [7]

Roman mosaics were originally commissioned by wealthy patrons to show off their status but this gave way to expanded color pallets and more religious subject matters as the artform found its way into the Byzantine churches of the fourth century.

The Project Begins

My first job is to come up with my design.  I want this to be big and impressive, so I'm going with 2'x3'.  In period, the tesserae would be pressed into the mortar which would eventually harden and keep the cubes from shifting.  Since this isn't an installation piece, I'm using 3/4 inch plywood as the base.  It will be vitally important that the piece not flex at all or the whole work could come apart.  I'll also drill holes 16 inches apart for mounting should he want to affix it to a wall.

Ioannes is a late Imperial/early Byzantine soldier, so I'm going to go with a limited pallet of earth tones.  The design will have to be bold and simplified, with details being achieved through variations in hue.  Roman mosaics also tend to put their tiles very close together, resulting in small grout lines.  They used a variety of mortar colors to anchor their tesserae, so I will also need to decide what colors that will be.  How will I sign it?  How will Their Majesties sign it?  What will it say?  Many decisions must be made and quickly.  Only 49 days to go!



[1] Marble statue of Mars: "Pyrrhus", dated to the 1st century AD. Hight: cm 360. It was found in the Nerva's Forum, in Rome, and it's now placed in the atrium of Capitoline Museums in Rome. This statue of Mars Ultor is most likely dated to the early 2nd century AD due to its style (either the end of Trajan's reign or beginning of Hadrian's). It is a copy of an Augustan-era original, which itself was based on a Hellenistic Greek model from the 4th century BC. Photo Source: Wikipedia.

[2] The Colosseum in Rome, Italy. Photo Source: Wikipedia.

[3] So-called Sappho, fourth style fresco; Pompeii, Region VI, Insula occidentalis. A young woman is shown with a pen (stylus) that is used to enscribe writing on the wax tablets she is holding. The net in her hair is made of golden threads and typical for the fashion of the Neronian period, c. 50 CE. Photo Source: Wikipedia.

[4] Late Roman mosaics at Villa Romana La Olmeda, Spain, 4th-5th centuries AD.  Photo Source: Wikipedia.

[5] Vergilius Vaticanus, folio XXIIr, c. 400, Rome. Photo Source: Digital Vatican Library. 

[6] Mosaics, Techniques & Traditions; King, Sonia. Sterling Publishing, NY.  2003

[7] Mosaic representing the battle of Alexander the Great against Darius (III) the Great, possibly at Battle of Issus or Battle of Gaugamela, perhaps after an earlier Greek painting of Philoxenus of Eretria. This mosaic was found in Pompeii in the House of the Faun and is now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Naples). It is dated first century BC. Photo Source: Wikipedia