On Easter Sunday, we drove through the interior of Sicily towards Catania and stopped mid-day at the Villa Romana di Casale, the home of the most pristine and wide ranging Roman mosaics in the world. We reached the isolated villa around lunch time and decided to have a meal before going in the museum. There was a restaurant just outside the gates and we walked in to find a packed establishment with large families enjoying La Pasqua (Easter in Italian). We had a simple, but tasty meal and then made our way into the villa.
The villa was the hunting lodge of someone very wealthy, possibly an emperor, and contained dozens of mosaic scenes, classic baths, courtyards and various buildings. The workmanship was impressive and the breadth of designs astounding.
The villa was preserved by a mudslide hundreds of years ago which explain how very well preserved the site was. There were themes of wild animals, geometric designs, hunting expeditions, capturing and transporting animals, mythology, chariot races, family portraits, and even female athletes. It is theorized that one artist completed the majority of the mosaics and one can discern his skill improving over time with the varying designs.
Everyone enjoyed the day seeing such brilliant art from millennia ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment