About the Artwork
This wonderfully naturalistic representation of the river Tigris as a bearded man wearing a wreath of river grasses formed one corner of the floor of a room in a house in Seleucia Pieria, the port of the city of Antioch. The decorative scheme of the floor was apparently the personification of the four eastern provinces of the Roman Empire surrounded by the personifications of their four principal rivers, each identified by name in Greek. The elaborate metaphor in mosaic was set in what was probably the dining room of the house.
Mosaic with Personification of the River Tigris
late 100s–200s
----------
----------
Roman
----------
Various stones
Overall: 56 3/4 × 56 1/4 × 2 1/2 inches (144.1 × 142.9 × 6.4 cm) Overall (central square): 42 1/2 × 42 1/2 inches (108 × 108 cm) Overall (thickness/depth): 2 1/8 inches (5.4 cm)
Mosaics
Greco-Roman and Ancient European
Founders Society Purchase, General Membership Fund
40.127
Public Domain
Markings
Inscribed, Greek capitals, across center of circle, either side of head: TIGRIS [Tau, Iota, Gamma, Rho, Iota, Sigma]
Provenance
(Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey);1940-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
Please note: This section is empty
The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.
Suggest FeedbackPublished References
Bulletin of the DIA 20, no. 3 (December 1940): pp. 21-23 (ill.).
Stillwell, R., ed. Antioch-on-the-Orontes, vol. 3. Princeton, 1941, p. 214, no. 177, pl. 88.
Levi, D. Antioch Mosaic Pavements, vol. 1. Princeton, 1947, p. 58.
DIA Handbook. 1971, p. 40 (ill.).
Jones, F. F. "Antioch Mosaics in Princeton," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University, vol. 40, no 2. 1981, p. 19 (ill.).
Henshaw, Julia P., ed. A Visitors Guide: The Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1995, p. 118 (ill.).
Cimok, Fatih, ed. Antioch Mosaics. Istanbul, 2000, p. 64-65 (ill.).
Kindly share your feedback or any additional information, as this record is still a work in progress and may need further refinement.
Suggest FeedbackCatalogue Raisoneé
Please note: This section is empty
Credit Line for Reproduction
Roman, Mosaic with Personification of the River Tigris, late 100s–200s, various stones. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, General Membership Fund, 40.127.
Feedback
We regularly update our object record as new research and findings emerge, and we welcome your feedback for correction or improvement.
Suggest Feedback
