Detail of a Mosaic Floor with a View of Alexandria and Memphis in the Yale University Art Gallery, October 2013

Mosaic Floor with Views of Alexandria and Memphis
ca. A.D. 540

Mosaic: limestone tesserae

396.25 × 609.6 cm (156 × 240 in.) (1932.1735 f): 49.53 × 48.9 × 4.13 cm(19 1/2 × 19 1/4 × 1 5/8 in.)

The Yale-British School Excavations at Gerasa

1932.1735

The Egyptian cities of Alexandria (left) and Memphis (right) are depicted here surrounded by tall date palms and lush, aquatic plants, the flora of the Nile. The high, turreted walls and the architecture within are depicted in the typical Byzantine style: a combination of bird’s-eye and perspective views. The church of Saints Peter and Paul, where this mosaic once lay, and its founder, Bishop Anastasius, are mentioned in the Greek inscription at center.

Geography: Excavated in Gerasa, Jordan

Culture: Gerasa (Jordan)
Period: Early Byzantine

Classification: Mosaic
Provenance: Excavated by the Yale-British School Excavations at Gerasa (Church of SS. Peter and Paul), present-day Jordan, 1928–34; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.

Bibliography:

Handbook of the Collections, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), 273, ill.

Jerry Podany and Susan B. Matheson, “Urban Renewal: The Conservation of a City Mosaic from Ancient Gerasa,” Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (1999): 20–31, fig. 1, 5–9.

Susan B. Matheson, Art for Yale: A History of the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2001), 111–12, fig. 105.

Lisa R. Brody et al., “A Floor Mosaic from Gerasa,” Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2010): 80–83, fig. 1–4.

Helen C. Evans and Brandi Ratliff, Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition, 7th–9th Century, exh. cat. (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012), 12, fig. 9.

Lisa R. Brody and Gail Hoffman, eds., Roman in the Provinces: Art on the Periphery of Empire (Chestnut Hill, Mass.: McMullen Museum of Art, 2014), 4, 238, no. 3, pl. 3, fig. 1.2.

Text from: artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/51363