The mosaics in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum span the second through the sixth centuries CE and reveal the diversity of compositions found throughout the Roman Empire during this period. Elaborate floors of stone and glass tesserae transformed private dwellings and public buildings alike into spectacular settings of vibrant color, figural imagery, and geometric design. Scenes from mythology, nature, daily life, and spectacles in the arena enlivened interior spaces and reflected the cultural ambitions of wealthy patrons. This online catalogue documents all of the mosaics in the Getty Museum’s collection, presenting their artistry in new color photography as well as the contexts of their discovery and excavation across Rome’s expanding empire—from its center in Italy to provinces in southern Gaul, North Africa, and ancient Syria.

• Director’s Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction, Christine Kondoleon
• Italy
  • 1. Mosaic Floor with Head of Medusa
  • 2. Mosaic Floor with Bear Hunt
• Gaul
  • 3. Mosaic Floor with Orpheus and Animals
  • Villelaure: History of the Excavations
  • 4. Mosaic Floor with Combat between Dares and Entellus
• North Africa
  • 5. Mosaic of a Lion Attacking an Onager
• Syria
  • 6. Mosaic Floor with Achilles and Briseis
  • Antioch and the Bath of Apolausis: History of the Excavations
  • 7. Mosaic Floor with Animals
  • 8. Mosaic Panel with Griffin
  • 9–19. Mosaic Panels with Animals
  • 20. Mosaic Panel with Head of a Season
  • 21. Mosaic Panel with Two Male Busts
• References Cited
• Glossary
• Contributors
• Index

Alexis Belis is assistant curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Nicole Budrovich is curatorial assistant at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Christine Kondoleon is the George D. and Margo Behrakis Curator of Greek and Roman Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Kenneth Lapatin, curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, is co-editor of and contributor to Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World (2015) and Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection (2012); and the author of Guide to the Getty Villa (2018), Luxus: The Sumptuous Arts of Greece and Rome (2015), and numerous other books and articles on ancient art and its modern reception.

Sean Leatherbury is assistant professor of ancient art and culture at Bowling Green State University, Ohio.

“A well-rounded examination of mosaics.” —Art Libraries Society of North America