Highlights of the collection
3rd century AD
4.5 x 6.25 m
Opus tessellatum
MNAT 45456
A mosaic depicting fish and sea creatures that decorated one of the rooms in the Roman villa of Callipolis in the municipality of Vila-seca.
The mosaic field is decorated with 47 depictions of Mediterranean marine life, mainly fish but also some crustaceans, cephalopods and mammals (that it has been possible to identify).
It belongs to the type of unitary composition typical of African mosaic, in which the scene occupied the whole mosaic field. This compares to the tendency in the Hellenistic tradition to make small independent compositions (emblemata) delimited by geometric decorations.
