How can Roman mosaics best be illustrated?
Mosaics are difficult to photograph: because of their size and situation, often only an oblique view is possible. To get an overall view of what a mosaic looked like, the best solution is a painting to scale, together with photographic evidence. This is the solution adopted in the four – volume corpus of Romano – British mosaics by David Neal and Stephen Cosh, published by the Society of Antiquaries (2002 – 2010). The highlight of the corpus is a series of paintings illustrating virtually all of the Roman mosaics found in Britain.
Stephen originally read History at Reading University and spent 22 years in teaching before retiring to spend more time concentrating on mosaic research. He became acquainted with David at the Association for the Study and Preservation of Roman Mosaics and they are now both internationally recognised experts.
Aldborough has the two most northerly in situ mosaics on display at the museum site. Over the years, more than twenty have been discovered, including the unique Helicon mosaic and the controversial Romulus and Remus mosaic, now housed in Leeds City Museum.
In this Zoom talk we look forward to finding out more about the wide range of mosaics found in the north of England. Many of these we shall see on our visit to the Hull and East Riding Museum planned for 2023.
