Nymphaeum

Name of structure: Nymphaeum
Extended name of structure: Behind Piazza d'Oro
Type of structure: Nymphaeum
Country or main area: Italy
Region within country or main area: Lazio
City or area within region: Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli
Date of structure: 40BC
Century of structure 1: 1 BCE
Century of structure 2:
Specific place of mosaic: Niches in the vault
Brief descriptive contents of mosaic: Square headed niches decorated with marble chips and shells. Round headed-niche originally adorned with pumice and shells, but later this was plastered over and replaced with a mosaic of yellow, green and blue glass tesserae.
Date of mosaic:

Built ca. 40 BC but glass tesserae in the round-headed niche could have been applied in the following hundred years.
Century of mosaic 1: 1 BCE
Century of mosaic 2: 1 AD
Silver tessera at site: No
Gold tessera at site: No
Colour tessera at site: Yes
Were other materials found at site (i.e., glass cakes)?
Has analysis been done?
Samples taken from where?
Excavation and restoration campaigns:
Bibliography of mainly technical resources:

 


Sear, Frank B., Roman Wall and Vault Mosaics (Heidelberg: F. H. Kerle Verlag, 1977), pp. 50-52
See also:
Penna, A., Viaggio pittorico della Villa Adriana (Rome: 1831-33) 2, no. 127
Gusman, P., La Villa Impériale de Tibur (Paris: 1904), p. 179, fig. 248
Sear, Frank B., ‘The earliest wall mosaics in Italy’, Papers of the British School at Rome 43 (1975), 83-97 
Neuerburg, N., ‘L’architerttura delle fontane e dei ninfei nell’Italia antica,’ in Memorie dell’Accademia di Archeologica Lettere e Belle Arti di Napoli, V (1963) pp. 239-40
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