Mid week so we're back to the Party God of the Olympians
DIONYSIOS
This is part of an Hellenistic Mosaic which may be a copy of a painting or an original work.
Its a common theme the god reclining and like earlier paintings on ceramic vessels he's half naked and wearing a wreath however the theme's details have changed ...he's now clean shaven no beard and the use of mosaic allows the artist to show him with pale skin and include a tonal background and foreground not possible with the limited range of colors on Classical ceramics.
The Greeks and Romans did not have stoneware glazes or underglazing under clear glazes.
That gloss you see thats polished terra sigillata not glaze! Contact with glass making cultures expanded the range of colors for painting and mosaic.
The satyrs having darker skin? Why? Drawing attention to Dionysios having pale skin like an aristo or a woman and emphasizing which figure is the god and by contrast showing the Satyrs are wild rural deities.
