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| images from the exhibition |
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| editions about the exhibition |
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title: O Mosaico das Musas. Torre de Palma
edition of: Museu Nacional de Arqueologia
number of pages: 63
ISBN: 972-776-128-3
Price: € 15,00 (3.007$00)
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title: O Mosaico das Musas e as Suas Histórias
edition of: Museu Nacional de Arqueologia e Grupo de Amigos do Museu Nacional de Arqueologia
number of pages: 30
ISBN: 972-95325-2-4
Price: € 20,00 (4.010$00)
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Past temporary exhibition
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Deuses e Heróis da Antiguidade. O mosaico das musas da villa romana de Torre de Palma (Gods and Heroes from Antiquity. The Mosaic of the Muses from the Roman villa of Torre de Palma)
Dates:
from 12 March 2002 to 1 January 2003
Localization in the MNA:
Torre Oca
Institutional organization:
National Archaeological Museum (MNA)
Scientific delegation:
Adília Alarcão e Janine Lancha
Type of exhibition:
Monographic presentation of the mosaic of the "Muses". Torre de Palma
Discovered and transported to the MNA in the middle of the last century, the so-called "mosaic of the muses" of the Roman villa of Torre de Palma, in Monforte, constitutes the most remarkable exemplar of its type known in Portugal today. After having been the object of a long restoration, the whole of its figurative part is now presented to the public. Some of its mythological pictures are true masterpieces, not only from a pictorial point of view, but also from the point of view of mosaic artistry. Such is the case of the "choir of the Muses", of the so-called "Indian triumph of Bacchus", of the tragic scenes of Medea, brooding over the infanticide, and of Hercules, maddened by Juno, preparing himself to kill his wife and children. This is, besides, the only known representation of this scene in the Roman World having mosaic as its support.
Many other motives could be cited. Nevertheless, maybe the most spectacular masterpiece of the master mosaicist of Torre de Palma is the picture of the fight of "Theseus against the Minotaur", in the labyrinth of Crete. We have here the feeling of being in presence of a modern representation, with an expressiveness that reminds us of the strength of a Picasso. With such a work, it is all Roman Portugal which becomes now more familiar: the life of a Roman or Romanised aristocrat in the late 3rd century AD, his home, his decorative environments, his riches, his imagination, his dreams, finally, his culture and his social ambitions, appear again before our eyes with the strength of the images retained in his mosaics. And what other compensation could he have than to know that, so many centuries afterwards, the messages chosen for his home still awaken in us the same questions, the same restlessness?
We understand well, thus, and make our own, the plea which the master mosaicists, certainly with the consent (or by imposition) of the owner of the house, inscribed on the "mosaic of the muses" itself, at the entrance of the noblest room of the house:
SCOPA ASPRA TESSELLAM LEDERE NOLI. VTERI FELIX
("Do not ruin the mosaic with a too rough broom, good luck!")
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history
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