Nigel Moore
@tessellae.bsky.social
Fascinated by how Neolithic man became a social being and by the exquisite beauty of ancient mosaics, after 35 years in psychiatry. Alter ego @ostreology
Grey dusk shadows the sky
From the light of the lake
No sound is heard on high
Its brume still lies awake
From the light of the lake
No sound is heard on high
Its brume still lies awake
December 7, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Grey dusk shadows the sky
From the light of the lake
No sound is heard on high
Its brume still lies awake
From the light of the lake
No sound is heard on high
Its brume still lies awake
#MosaicMonday
#ClassicsBlueSky
#AncientBlueSky
Found only last year in #Eretria on the island of Evia in an andron where symposia would have taken place. With two satyrs, cronies of Dionysos, one of whom is playing the aulos and the other presumably dancing
#ClassicsBlueSky
#AncientBlueSky
Found only last year in #Eretria on the island of Evia in an andron where symposia would have taken place. With two satyrs, cronies of Dionysos, one of whom is playing the aulos and the other presumably dancing
November 30, 2025 at 11:36 PM
#MosaicMonday
#ClassicsBlueSky
#AncientBlueSky
Found only last year in #Eretria on the island of Evia in an andron where symposia would have taken place. With two satyrs, cronies of Dionysos, one of whom is playing the aulos and the other presumably dancing
#ClassicsBlueSky
#AncientBlueSky
Found only last year in #Eretria on the island of Evia in an andron where symposia would have taken place. With two satyrs, cronies of Dionysos, one of whom is playing the aulos and the other presumably dancing
For #MosaicMonday
This sumptuous pebble mosaic, made up of flowers, leaves and spirals, a wonder of symmetrical beauty and precision from the oikos of the palace in Aigai (modern Vergina) has four females in each corner whose dresses morph into a palmette. Middle of 4th cent BC
This sumptuous pebble mosaic, made up of flowers, leaves and spirals, a wonder of symmetrical beauty and precision from the oikos of the palace in Aigai (modern Vergina) has four females in each corner whose dresses morph into a palmette. Middle of 4th cent BC
November 10, 2025 at 4:31 PM
For #MosaicMonday
This sumptuous pebble mosaic, made up of flowers, leaves and spirals, a wonder of symmetrical beauty and precision from the oikos of the palace in Aigai (modern Vergina) has four females in each corner whose dresses morph into a palmette. Middle of 4th cent BC
This sumptuous pebble mosaic, made up of flowers, leaves and spirals, a wonder of symmetrical beauty and precision from the oikos of the palace in Aigai (modern Vergina) has four females in each corner whose dresses morph into a palmette. Middle of 4th cent BC
But like one of my old oriental rugs at home! Supposed to be melon forms , all in natural wool colours
October 27, 2025 at 7:06 PM
But like one of my old oriental rugs at home! Supposed to be melon forms , all in natural wool colours
Antoine-Chrysostome Quatremère de Quincy (1755-1849) - what a name too ! - was the first in 1806 to write about #polychromy in ancient Greek art m. And what a colourful life he led!
#ancientbluesky
#ancientbluesky
October 21, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Antoine-Chrysostome Quatremère de Quincy (1755-1849) - what a name too ! - was the first in 1806 to write about #polychromy in ancient Greek art m. And what a colourful life he led!
#ancientbluesky
#ancientbluesky
Birds of a feather!
From the Louvre (I’m assuming it’s still there😃)
Provenance Daphne near Antakya beginning of 3rd cent AD
#MosaicMonday
From the Louvre (I’m assuming it’s still there😃)
Provenance Daphne near Antakya beginning of 3rd cent AD
#MosaicMonday
October 20, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Birds of a feather!
From the Louvre (I’m assuming it’s still there😃)
Provenance Daphne near Antakya beginning of 3rd cent AD
#MosaicMonday
From the Louvre (I’m assuming it’s still there😃)
Provenance Daphne near Antakya beginning of 3rd cent AD
#MosaicMonday
Forgot to add the rep photos
October 7, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Forgot to add the rep photos
This statue also from Karahantepe plus the perhaps even older “Urfa Man” suggest human figures had their place in Neolithic iconography
October 6, 2025 at 8:33 PM
This statue also from Karahantepe plus the perhaps even older “Urfa Man” suggest human figures had their place in Neolithic iconography
Something different for #MosaicMonday a micromosaic! A copy of the mosaic of doves mentioned by Pliny but copied from the mosaic found in Hadrian’s villa, itself a copy. This micromosaic made of tiny glass tesserae, 56mm, in 1779 by Giacomo Rafaelli in Rome
📷 Trustees of British Museum
📷 Trustees of British Museum
September 22, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Something different for #MosaicMonday a micromosaic! A copy of the mosaic of doves mentioned by Pliny but copied from the mosaic found in Hadrian’s villa, itself a copy. This micromosaic made of tiny glass tesserae, 56mm, in 1779 by Giacomo Rafaelli in Rome
📷 Trustees of British Museum
📷 Trustees of British Museum
Details of the late 4th cent BC pebble mosaic in #Pella from an andron showing exquisite use of skiagraphia and chiaroscuro perhaps of the figures of Alexander (l) and his friend Hephaistos and signed by Gnosis
(Had the entire site to myself!)
#MosaicMonday
#Classics/AncientBlueSky
(Had the entire site to myself!)
#MosaicMonday
#Classics/AncientBlueSky
September 8, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Details of the late 4th cent BC pebble mosaic in #Pella from an andron showing exquisite use of skiagraphia and chiaroscuro perhaps of the figures of Alexander (l) and his friend Hephaistos and signed by Gnosis
(Had the entire site to myself!)
#MosaicMonday
#Classics/AncientBlueSky
(Had the entire site to myself!)
#MosaicMonday
#Classics/AncientBlueSky
September 1, 2025 at 11:52 AM
For those who can read Swedish my article in Svenska Dagbladet about pebble mosaics and the floor as a spectacle
#MosaicMonday
#MosaicMonday
July 28, 2025 at 4:20 PM
For those who can read Swedish my article in Svenska Dagbladet about pebble mosaics and the floor as a spectacle
#MosaicMonday
#MosaicMonday
In Pergamon and Alexandria. If Sosos was so renowned for his exquisite mosaics could he (and his colleagues?) have been responsible for pioneering the opus vermiculatum? It seems to have appeared from nowhere, although three dimensionality was an element of the late pebble mosaics in eg Pella
July 14, 2025 at 5:14 PM
In Pergamon and Alexandria. If Sosos was so renowned for his exquisite mosaics could he (and his colleagues?) have been responsible for pioneering the opus vermiculatum? It seems to have appeared from nowhere, although three dimensionality was an element of the late pebble mosaics in eg Pella
#MosaicMonday
Why was Sosos so famous acc to Pliny? He mentions two mosaics seemingly in the same room in Pergamon, both starting a mosaic meme as copies were made long after. None of his mosaics have survived (stolen as war booty as he was so celebrated?). This is a fragment of a mosaic ….1/
Why was Sosos so famous acc to Pliny? He mentions two mosaics seemingly in the same room in Pergamon, both starting a mosaic meme as copies were made long after. None of his mosaics have survived (stolen as war booty as he was so celebrated?). This is a fragment of a mosaic ….1/
July 14, 2025 at 5:09 PM
#MosaicMonday
Why was Sosos so famous acc to Pliny? He mentions two mosaics seemingly in the same room in Pergamon, both starting a mosaic meme as copies were made long after. None of his mosaics have survived (stolen as war booty as he was so celebrated?). This is a fragment of a mosaic ….1/
Why was Sosos so famous acc to Pliny? He mentions two mosaics seemingly in the same room in Pergamon, both starting a mosaic meme as copies were made long after. None of his mosaics have survived (stolen as war booty as he was so celebrated?). This is a fragment of a mosaic ….1/
In Pergamon and Alexandria. If Sosos was so renowned for his exquisite mosaics could he (and his colleagues?) have been responsible for pioneering the opus vermiculatum? It seems to have appeared from nowhere, although three dimensionality was an element of the late pebble mosaics in eg Pella
July 14, 2025 at 3:32 PM
In Pergamon and Alexandria. If Sosos was so renowned for his exquisite mosaics could he (and his colleagues?) have been responsible for pioneering the opus vermiculatum? It seems to have appeared from nowhere, although three dimensionality was an element of the late pebble mosaics in eg Pella
#MosaicMonday
#AncientBlueSky
An unusually early polychrome pebble mosaic of a female (deity?) from Epidamnos (Durrës, Albania). Second half 4th cent BC
📷 @albania360.com
#AncientBlueSky
An unusually early polychrome pebble mosaic of a female (deity?) from Epidamnos (Durrës, Albania). Second half 4th cent BC
📷 @albania360.com
June 23, 2025 at 4:02 PM
#MosaicMonday
#AncientBlueSky
An unusually early polychrome pebble mosaic of a female (deity?) from Epidamnos (Durrës, Albania). Second half 4th cent BC
📷 @albania360.com
#AncientBlueSky
An unusually early polychrome pebble mosaic of a female (deity?) from Epidamnos (Durrës, Albania). Second half 4th cent BC
📷 @albania360.com
For #MosaicMonday Four mosaics from Anatolia preceding Greek pebble mosaics
April 21, 2025 at 12:26 AM
For #MosaicMonday Four mosaics from Anatolia preceding Greek pebble mosaics
The apotropaic sign of Tanit from the vestibule in the House of Dolphins owned by wealthy Phoenician on Delos.
📷 me
#MosaicMonday
📷 me
#MosaicMonday
April 14, 2025 at 5:42 PM
The apotropaic sign of Tanit from the vestibule in the House of Dolphins owned by wealthy Phoenician on Delos.
📷 me
#MosaicMonday
📷 me
#MosaicMonday
A humourous trompe l’oeil touch on this fragment made by this mosaicist who worked under Attalus Ii around 160BC in Pergamon- bit like a Post-it note!
#MosaicMonday
#Classics/AncientGreece
#MosaicMonday
#Classics/AncientGreece
![Hephaistiom made [this]
Pergamonmuseum Berlin](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:jltqsb7tt63owuoeevtlzovg/bafkreibufnhwxyiilal4l3yesifbn565tf76ibkqwgpm7luofhvocb3t6q@jpeg)
March 30, 2025 at 10:39 PM
A humourous trompe l’oeil touch on this fragment made by this mosaicist who worked under Attalus Ii around 160BC in Pergamon- bit like a Post-it note!
#MosaicMonday
#Classics/AncientGreece
#MosaicMonday
#Classics/AncientGreece
#MosaicMonday a Ptolemaic mosaic showing three winged Erotes hunting a stag, surrounded by a border of real and mythical animals, incl two animals that signify an Egyptian setting—the gazelle and hyena.
Mixed pebble and tessera pieces. Early 3rd cent BC
📷 ℅ Archives du Centre d’Études Alexandrines
Mixed pebble and tessera pieces. Early 3rd cent BC
📷 ℅ Archives du Centre d’Études Alexandrines
March 23, 2025 at 11:35 PM
#MosaicMonday a Ptolemaic mosaic showing three winged Erotes hunting a stag, surrounded by a border of real and mythical animals, incl two animals that signify an Egyptian setting—the gazelle and hyena.
Mixed pebble and tessera pieces. Early 3rd cent BC
📷 ℅ Archives du Centre d’Études Alexandrines
Mixed pebble and tessera pieces. Early 3rd cent BC
📷 ℅ Archives du Centre d’Études Alexandrines
#MosaicMonday and now for something different…
March 10, 2025 at 8:10 AM
#MosaicMonday and now for something different…
For #MosaicMonday a close-up of the hippocampus in this mosaic from ancient Lebena/Lentas on Crete which shows the background with black pebbles and the use of tessellated white marble for the body. An early example of the transition from pebbles to tesserae, mid 3rd cent BC
📷 from Gettyimages.com
📷 from Gettyimages.com
March 3, 2025 at 7:08 PM
For #MosaicMonday a close-up of the hippocampus in this mosaic from ancient Lebena/Lentas on Crete which shows the background with black pebbles and the use of tessellated white marble for the body. An early example of the transition from pebbles to tesserae, mid 3rd cent BC
📷 from Gettyimages.com
📷 from Gettyimages.com
Always reminds me of the Chardin still-life, La Raie (1728)
January 20, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Always reminds me of the Chardin still-life, La Raie (1728)
For #MosaicMonday these modern day mosaics represent a wonderfully touching story about their site in Shepherdess Walk Park in Hackney created by Tessa Hunkin. Photos courtesy of
livinglondonhistory.com/the-stunning...
livinglondonhistory.com/the-stunning...
January 12, 2025 at 11:44 PM
For #MosaicMonday these modern day mosaics represent a wonderfully touching story about their site in Shepherdess Walk Park in Hackney created by Tessa Hunkin. Photos courtesy of
livinglondonhistory.com/the-stunning...
livinglondonhistory.com/the-stunning...