page_title: Hellenistic art
section_title: Stag Hunt mosaic
hierarchical_section_title: Hellenistic art / Paintings and mosaics / Mosaics / Stag Hunt mosaic
caption_attribution_description: English: Mosaic emblema with doves. Roman copy after an Pergamenian original from the 2nd century BCE. From the Villa Adriana, 1737. Français&#160;: Emblema en mosaïque représentant des colombes. Copie romaine d'après un original du IIe siècle av. J.-C. Provenance&#160;: villa Adriana, 1737. Italiano: Mosaico con colombe. Copia romana da un originale pergameno del II sec. a.C. Della Villa Adriana presso Tivoli, 1737.
context_page_description: Hellenistic art is the art of the Hellenistic period generally taken to begin with the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and end with the conquest of the Greek world by the Romans, a process well underway by 146 BCE, when the Greek mainland was taken, and essentially ending in 30 BCE with the conquest of Ptolemaic Egypt following the Battle of Actium. A number of the best-known works of Greek sculpture belong to this period, including Laocoön and His Sons, Venus de Milo, and the Winged Victory of Samothrace. It follows the period of Classical Greek art, while the succeeding Greco-Roman art was very largely a continuation of Hellenistic trends.
  The term Hellenistic refers to the expansion of Greek influence and dissemination of its ideas following the death of Alexander – the "Hellenizing" of the world, with Koine Greek as a common language. The term is a modern invention; the Hellenistic World not only included a huge area covering the whole of the Aegean, rather than the Classical Greece focused on the Poleis of Athens and Sparta, but also a huge time range.
context_section_description: The Stag Hunt Mosaic by Gnosis is a mosaic from a wealthy home of the late 4th century BC, the so-called "House of the Abduction of Helen" (or "House of the Rape of Helen"), in Pella, The signature ("Gnosis epoesen", i.e. Gnosis created) is the first known signature of a mosaicist.
  The emblema is bordered by an intricate floral pattern, which itself is bordered by stylized depictions of waves. The mosaic is a pebble mosaic with stones collected from beaches and riverbanks which were set into cement. As was perhaps often the case, the mosaic does much to reflect styles of painting. The light figures against a darker background may allude to red figure painting. The mosaic also uses shading, known to the Greeks as skiagraphia, in its depictions of the musculature and cloaks of the figures. This along with its use of overlapping figures to create depth renders the image three dimensional.
caption: The "Dove Basin" (Capitoline), attributed to Sosos of Pergamon, from Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli, Lazio, 2nd century AD
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