Roman mosaic art on display at Humayun's Tomb Museum in Delhi

Hindustan Times

25-05-2025

Two fishermen carefully withdraw their nets from a river. The sunlight gleams on their bodies, and their sinewy arms appear tense, completely employed in their task. Their stance is wide, so as to not slip, and their jaws alert, eyes intensely focused on the task at hand; one of them appears to be instructing the other. This detailed image is not a photograph, but a 1,900-year-old mosaic tile made entirely of rocks not larger than a few millimetres.
This is one of the five original pieces of art from Rome's Capitoline Museum, which are currently displayed at the Humayun's Tomb Museum as part of ongoing Mosaico exhibition. These pieces are roughly 1,700 to 1,900-year-old, and are on display till August 30.
This is the first time that an international exhibition is being hosted at the museum located near Sunder Nursery.
The exhibition follows the history of mosaics across Italy, spanning over 2,000 years. It is divided into seven areas, each depicting mosaics from an Italian city or town. The mosaics, seen through videos projected onto the walls, depict a variety of scenes from Italian history. These range from the famous wars of Alexander the Great and religious Christian imagery that adorn the ceilings of 5th century churches, to the daily habits and customs of Roman people at the time.
'The exhibition is articulated in two parts,' says Andrea Anastasio, director of the Italian Embassy Cultural Centre in Delhi, one of the organisers of the exhibition. 'It is a visual journey to take the viewer through the history of mosaics in Italy, and to make them understand the technique of Mosaic.'
The five mosaics constituting the centrepiece of the exhibition are placed in a near-pitch black room. One is drawn to the tiles illuminated with yellow — the only lights in the room.
One of the mosaics, visualising peacocks, originated from Roman emperor Hadrian's villa built around 120 AD, says Anastasio.
The piece showcasing the fishermen is special for two reasons, he says. First, the colour shading is achieved using a sophisticated technique involving micro tesserae (small blocks of material used in mosaics), and second, the piece was excavated almost entirely intact.
'The original Roman cement that holds the entire mosaic is intact, whereas the other mosaics have been reconstructed on a new cemented base,' he added.
Other pieces include a checkerboard pattern of alternating colours which the museum describes as a floor mosaic that originally decorated two rooms of Piazza d'Oro, a complex within Hadrian's villa. Another, stated to be 'probably a wall mosaic', depicts multiple motifs running across the design, and stands out due to its heavy usage of glass tiles.
The description of a mosaic featuring the bust of a muscular male athlete states that it was originally part of a bath complex built by Roman emperor Septimius Severus in the late first century or early second century.
A mosaic depicting two peacocks discusses themes of life, death, and resurrection. In it, one peacock is pecking a small bird on the ground, which is next to a poppy and other small plants. The description states that the peacock was a bird sacred to Dionysus, and symbolised immortality and resurrection beyond death.
'The beauty of this exhibition is in making the viewer understand the fascination of humans to reproduce reality in all forms,' said Anastasio.
The second part of the exhibition will be held from October 2025 to March 2026, displaying 120 art pieces procured from the Museum of Civilization in Quebec. The main focus of the exhibition, Anastasio said, will be on floral motifs shared by different civilisations, from the Mediterranean to the Indus Valley.
Aside from the Mosaico exhibition, the Humayun's Tomb Museum is currently also displaying a collection of antiquities and historical artefacts and models showing the history of Delhi, the focus being the emperor the tomb is dedicated to.