Centcelles

The survey discusses wall- and vault mosaics (Centcelles, Rotunda Thessaloniki), floor mosaics (Aquileia, Madaba, Petra), paintings, textiles, sculpture, sumptuary arts (silver, ivory), iconographical themes (martyrs, Christ, baptism, crucifixion), etc.

This paper deals with a selection of mosaic and wall-painting fragments excavated in the 1950s and 1960s. In this connection, attention is turned to a corpus of findings from the rooms situated west of the room complex which is composed of a domed hall and a tetraconch. With help of the excavation diaries, the drawings and some photographs of the excavation, the following new insights into the equipment of room 11, 15 and 16 could be turned out: All rooms were equipped with a late-antique mosaic floor. Furthermore, the floor in room 11 probably had a figurative motif. The rising masonry (above-ground wall) was decorated, too. It is nearly certain that the walls in room 15 and 16 possessed a mural decoration because of preserved rests (in situ) and some fragments of painted marble imitations (»incrustations«). The latest results will have widespread consequences for all questions concerning the sector’s completion and utilisation in Late Antiquity.

This paper deals with the schematical composition of the decoration in the domed hall of the villa complex at Centcelles. Therefore, the size and the position of eight ornamental bands are analysed. It is clear that several parts of the decoration of the domed hall were emphasised in a special way, which can particularly be seen on the transition from painted to mosaic decoration, on the lower frame of zone C as well as on the vertical arrangement of this zone.

According to the detailed examination focused on the little mosaic remains it can be assumed that panel B7 once depicted a female orans wearing a dalmatica with extended sleeves. Few yellow tesserae and a red stone (being arranged on a vertical line) give reason to presume that the dalmatica was decorated with two yellow-red clavi, whereas the left one is badly preserved and can only be imagined. Red tesserae in the area of the meadow point to a shoe tip. Based on the organic structure of the dark brown mosaic surface, it is possible that in front of the female orans’s legs there was
standing an animal painted in dark brown. If it is really a Thekla depiction, I would suggest that the attribute in front of the orans is a bear or a reclining bull following the Cologne gold glass bowl in the British Museum in London. Seals and lions as well as further animals of her martyrdom should be excluded. But the design of the left half of the picture must remain hypothetical. Even though the interpretation of the orans as holy Thekla cannot be proven definitely, the significance of this saint as proto-martyr and the widespread propagation of her cult are positive arguments for such an identification of the female orans in the panel at Centcelles.

Centcelles is a well-known monument, mainly for its mosaic decoration. However, its architecture has rarely been explored. This paper summarises a series of observations on the monument's construction technique, of which a preliminary study is produced. This has enabled us, along with previous work, to shed light on some unclear aspects and to suggest that the current building is the result of several construction phases, one of which is clearly sumptuary, perhaps incomplete. In this phase its ongoing occupation has been attested, which we can estimate ranged from Late Antiquity to the present. The paper features these observations with the aim of servings as a basis for a new way of studying and understanding this monument.

Summary
A study of the visual characteristics of the Centcelles mosaics reveals that different figurative modes were used to convey the different messages of the figural zones, and that the ornaments were chosen to match the style and content of the images they frame. Although a local tradition for wall- and floors mosaic exists in the Tarraconensis, closely comparable material is lacking. ... The commissioner was probably a member of the senatorial aristocracy, here tentatively identified as the provincial governor Lucilius Constantius. Suggested date: 375-400.

The Roman villa of Centcelles conserves 8 original
windows and evidences of other two with a great variability
of forms and constructive typologies. In fact, it
can be said that no window is the equal of another. In
this work we study this singularity and try to give an
explanation. Five different types of windows are identified,
indicating the architectural complexity of the
building. In addition, it is noted that one of these types
only has parallels in chronologies ranging from the
2nd century to the beginning of the 4th century AD
and that it is unknown in post-Constantinian and 5th
century architecture.

A short talk delivered at the University of St Andrews on 15 March 2019 about portrait mosaics in rural villas on the late antique Iberian Peninsula as a means of self-representation and social signalling, and thereby their implications for other mosaics in these villas which contain imagery possibly religious in nature: for example, mosaics at the villas of Centcelles, La Olmeda, and Fortunatus.

Centcelles is a well-known monument, mainly for its mosaic decoration. However, its architecture has rarely been explored. This paper summarises a series of observations on the monument's construction technique, of which a preliminary study is produced. This has enabled us, along with previous work, to shed light on some unclear aspects and to suggest that the current building is the result of several construction phases, one of which is clearly sumptuary, perhaps incomplete. In this phase its ongoing occupation has been attested, which we can estimate ranged from Late Antiquity to the present. The paper features these observations with the aim of servings as a basis for a new way of studying and understanding this monument.