Ancient Antioch Mosaics at MFA

Antioch Reclaimed

Ancient mosaic tile slabs, some buried outside the Museum of Fine Arts for decades, make their long-awaited debut.

BY MARCIA BIGGS

It’s always interesting to see how museums select new exhibits in their never-ending quest to excite the public, attract new members and satisfy the older ones. The Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg has done a fine job in recent years under executive director Kristen Shepherd to shake things up regularly, bringing in a diverse array of unique exhibits from dead bugs to colorful modern commentary art and oversized origami to stunning jewels.

The new Antioch Mosaics exhibit turns attention to the museum’s antiquities, an important yet often overlooked collection. Ancient history and archaeology buffs, this one’s for you. There’s a crazy story behind the newly restored mosaic slabs which date from the 2nd to the 5th centuries AD, and some interesting artifacts from their excavation in the 1930s that make this small yet mighty show worth your time.

Antioch was the most dynamic, important ancient city of the Eastern Mediterranean. Founded around 300 B.C. by Seleucus I, one of Alexander the Great’s generals, its cultural prominence spanned centuries of change. First a Greek city, it became the capital of the

Roman province of Syria from 64 B.C., and was ultimately home to the first Christian community. The city is now modern Antakya, a provincial capital of southern Turkey.

Organized by the Museum of Fine Arts in partnership with Princeton University, the exhibit tells the story of the excavation of Antioch, which was led by Princeton from 1932 to 1939. Most of the artifacts were eventually sold to museums and public institutions in North America and Europe. The documents, artifacts, photographs, and fascinating film footage played on a loop of the actual excavation reveal how Antioch and its suburbs were uncovered, exposing some 300 mosaic pavements.

The slabs were discovered covering the floors of the elegant private villas in the wealthy region and were given names accordingly such as The House of the Drinking Contest (hey, it was Greco-Roman times). Photographs of the home excavation sites have been enlarged and cover the gallery walls as floor to ceiling murals. Princeton University Art Museum is lending complementary works to the collection including three sculptures, while Princeton Archives is lending archival documents from the dig including original photos, letters, telegrams, journals and sketch books.

The exhibit is the second phase of a three-phase project for the MFA’s five mosaics. The first phase was recovering and restoring the ancient tiles, and the final phase will be installing them this fall in the Membership Garden, said Michael Bennett, the museum’s Senior Curator of Early Western Art and co-curator of the exhibit along with Andrea De Giorgi, Associate Professor of Classics at Florida State University.

Buried Mosaics Uncovered How two missing mosaic slabs were discovered at the museum is an intriguing part of this exhibit.

The five mosaic pavements on view were acquired from Princeton by the MFA in 1964, the year before the museum opened to the public. MFA’s first director Rexford Stead purchased the ancient artifacts for the museum and had them shipped to St. Petersburg, the very first art shipment to arrive at the MFA’s loading dock. From there the story gets quirky.

Three of the slabs found spots in the museum (one lived under the stage in the ballroom), but decades later two major slabs were missing. “No written documentation of their whereabouts was found,” says Bennett. “However, museum ‘myth’ had them buried for safekeeping beneath the east lawn.”

In 2017, new MFA executive director Kristen Shepard began research aimed at finding the missing pieces, and initiated a fundraising campaign to excavate and restore them. A year later an excavation team discovered them about 4 to 5 feet beneath the ground. “The largest mosaic had been placed on concrete with rebar by the original excavation team and weighed 2 tons,” said Bennett. “We had to set up an outdoor tent and restoration lab on the lawn to work on cleaning and removing the concrete backing. It took an entire year.”

The mosaic designs are primarily geometric in design, made with colorful stones. The largest one, dubbed The House of the Drinking Contest, plays tricks on the eye like a kaleidoscope, it is “sophisticated geometry” by highly trained artisans, says Bennett.

Or maybe it was a drinking game? That’s one question that might never be answered.

Antioch Reclaimed continues through August 22; to find related events and programs go to mfastpete.org.