First assigment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

First assigment - Essay Example Personally, this artwork is the most beautiful set of limestone that I have ever seen in my entire life that is why I chose it for this assignment. The artwork is the Floor Mosaic Fragment Depicting Bacchus. The artwork is made of limestone tesserae with a dimension of 117.5 x 117.5 cm. The estimated date of its creation is before 5th century and its provenance is Daphne, from a villa at Daphne near Antioch or modern Antakya, Turkey (RISD Museum, nd). The artwork is an image of Bacchus in the center of the mosaic floor. The form of the whole artwork is a perfect square and inside the square is circle with a series of wave inside it. The color is flesh and inside the wavy circle is the image of Bacchus looking in the upper left corner of the box. He is wearing the typical roman garb with laurels on his head indicating that he holds a special position in roman society. I would like to compare the style of the artwork to Rembrandt’s later works where thick marks of brushes can be seen in the painting. It may look rough when scrutinized closely but its beauty is revealed when looked at a distance. The same is true with the floor mosaic fragment of Bacchus where its beauty can only be appreciated when looked at a distance because the color blends to form a complete whole portrait of Bacchus. There are also some details and decorations that may not be seen when the artwork is observed closely but can be appreciated when one steps back to appreciate the whole picture. For example, the roman leaves on the head of Bacchus may be just pebbles or lime stones when observed closely but when steps back, the intricate detail of the artwork can be appreciated. The same is true for the dress. Up close, it does not resemble to any work of art but just a collection of lime stones until of course one steps back and realize that it is in fact a dress. One has to remember that during that time, the formal method of drawing or painting did not yet