Mosaic floor in the Vatican Museums. The Vatican, Italy. April 26, 2022.

Ancient mosaics captivate my eye and my brain. As with all works of art, the vision involved in developing the image or form, combined with selecting the materials and determining their use, requires creative intelligence and skill to fascinate the eye.

However, mosaics prompt me to think beyond the usual vision of the artist or select artists in the studio employing hard-won skills to realize the work to imagining what must have required, in some cases, several artisans working sometimes on hands and knees and with their fingers and tiny tools to execute the artist’s vision via hundreds or thousands of small tiles, placed and cemented over the course of hours, days, months. All this after the tiles’ creation—which also represents a feat of craft and labor.

Yes, I know many sculptures and large-scale frescoes often also required uncomfortable positions for hours and often the labor or multiple people, but the nature of mosaics brings the labor involved—not just the creative vision—more to the forefront of my mind.

Mosaics prompt me to imagine and consider these artisans, these hours, this labor. Who were they? What were their lives like? How long did this take? What brought them into this profession?

Today, mosaic-like home decoration comes together in factories—mostly—by machines working at the behest of computers. Perhaps sometimes the visions they realize started from the human imagination, yet I figure today, in many cases, computers have generated the designs, too.

In reviewing my photos and videos from a visit to Rome, I find I linger on the photos and videos of the mosaics housed in museum collections and on ancient sites. I find I took more photos of mosaics than of anything else. And in some cases, I knew that a photo alone couldn’t capture the magic—I needed video as well or instead.

To collect all these mosaics in one place—for myself as well as for other people—I’ve created this compilation. I hope your eyes and your mind enjoys it as much as mine do.

I don’t know the titles historians gave these works. I’ve listed them below by key words tied to their images and motifs or to where in Rome I saw them.

Floor Mosaics in the Vatican Museums

Ignore the dust on that immense red-marble chalice there in the center, because the mosaic floor has enough luminosity to completely fade everything else.

Look at the vibrancy of the color and the dynamism of design in this floor with Athena in the central medallion!

Mosaic floor in the Vatican Museums with a central medallion featuring Athena, surrounded by phases of the moon. The Vatican, Italy. April 26, 2022.

Mosaic Dome in Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican

You’d think, standing on the floor of Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, that the figures in the dome above are frescoes.

But no: They’re mosaics made from luminescent tiles. Absolutely incredible.

Cat and Bird Floor Insert

Some large-scale mosaics have inset segments with more intricate detail and more vibrant color, almost as though someone had placed a painting in the middle of the floor.

From a distance, given the talent with perspective and detail involved in these insets, you would absolutely think this one segment a painting, rather than a finer-tiled mosaic.

Inset from the mosaic floor featuring a central image of a cat and two birds. Rome, Italy. April 30, 2022.

Child in Fruited Headdress

In this mosaic, the central panel has more intricacy and color than the larger overall design, though the full panel delights the senses with color, patterns, and perspectives.

Patterned mosaic with a central image of a child in a fruited headdress. Rome, Italy. April 30, 2022.

Black and White Corpse

This black-and-white mosaic representing a fallen corpse likely graced the bottom of a bath or reflecting pool. Over the centuries, humans have created art and decorations to remind us to reflect on our shared mortality and on the fleetingness of life.

Black and white mosaic of a dead body. Rome, Italy. April 30, 2022.

Drinking Birds

The placement of this mosaic high on the wall of the museum and right under a canister light made it impossible for me to do justice in a photo of this incredibly detailed, finely crafted mosaic.

You must look very closely to see that it is, in fact, a mosaic; I’d thought it a painting or fresco until I passed it in the room and looked more closely. Stunning.

Mosaic of birds drinking from a vase. Rome, Italy. April 25, 2022.

Gods and Humans

As with the cat-and-bird mosaic inset above, this mosaic has an inset segment in incredible detail and color that, from a distance, gives it the air of a fresco embedded in the overall floor.

Mosaic with Insets of Faces

Though the overall concept and execution of even the borders of this mosaic provide visual play, the detail—all the way to the expressions on the figures’ faces—of the inset images we can still see feel so human. Incredibly evocative.

Mosaic floor with geometric patterns and insets of faces. Rome, Italy. April 30, 2022.

Head with Wings and Serpents as a Medallion in a Geometric Design

Another mosaic with a central inset of a head with serpents, this time with wings as well.

The overall design of this mosaic, as with several of the others in this post, recalls to me the designs of 20th century American quilts. As I cannot imagine how much the one informed the other—except in very limited circumstances (but maybe?)—this fascinates me.

Geometrical mosaic with an inset of a head featuring wings and serpents. Rome, Italy. April 30, 2022.

Natural Motifs in Black and White

This motif, held in place today against the wall of what had formerly served as a public bath, shows its likely use as a wall decoration.

Natural motifs in a black-and-white mosaic formerly decorating the wall of a public bathhouse. Rome, Italy. April 30, 2022.

Men and Horses

Some mosaic floors, rather than featuring a central image surrounded by a more abstract design, have square or geometric panels, each featuring a different image or figure. This mosaic featured images of different horses with men in different styles of dress.

Mythical Creatures and Gods

As with the mosaic above, of men and horses, this is a paneled mosaic floor. This example features mythical creatures and gods.

Humanity across the Centuries

Artists and artisans created these works thousands of years ago. Homeowners, businesses, and governments thousands of years ago commissioned these mosaics. Thousands of years ago, humans appreciated, looked at, or simply passed by these same mosaics—mosaics that still exist today for us to admire.

Our shared humanity—across continents, cultures, history, and beyond—to create, to decorate, to commemorate, to honor, to consider, to represent our worlds through art cannot but make you stop, think, and marvel.

Mosaics in Rome