Abstract

In an earlier study of the utilisation of the materials in the mosaics of Delos we were able to show the variety and brilliance of colour obtained by using tessera of glass and faïence and painting over some of them. The cleaning of the large mosaic in the House of the Jewels now allows us to complete these observations. For a better understanding of how colour was used in the Hellenistic mosaics of pictorial style, it will be helpful to extend this work of analysis and restoration to other mosaic floors belonging to the same stylistic trend: two Delian mosaics with Dionysiac themes and two Hellenistic mosaics in Egypt (the one signed by Sophilos and a copy of it discovered at Thmuis). Our perception of the colours of these mosaics is in fact considerably falsifîed by the altération of the materials. The result of the restoration of the original colours has been to reestablish these mosaics within the technical and stylistic context of hellenistic mosaics and painting.