The Mosaics of Conimbriga (Prov. Lusitania, Portugal). New Observations on the Activity of their Workshops and on their Decorative Programs

Abstract

With over 100 years of study and dissemination, the mosaics from Conimbriga are an outstanding group of this Roman decorative art in the extreme West of the Empire. Recent research on the domestic architecture of the town as allowed for those studies to be put in a general perspective and some conclusions drawn on the activity of the local workshops over the span of five centuries (1st BC - IVth AD). These conclusions respect both to technical and artistic matters, such as the volume of the activity, the public or private nature of the decorated buildings and the style of those mosaics, and to ideological issues, such as the figurative motifs preferred in the decorative programs, where everyday life, heroic cycles and broad mythological themes have an important presence.