The Design of the Roman Mosaic at Hinton St. Mary

SummaryTwo problems in the design of the Hinton St. Mary mosaic are (1) that the elements of the design are placed the wrong way round if the mosaic was planned to be seen like a carpet; and (2) whether the bust of Christ is an original design or whether it is based on a formal set of rules. There is evidence to suggest (1) that the design of the mosaic as a whole may have been conceived as the decoration of a ceiling, and (2) that rules to which the bust of Christ conforms were still in use in the eighteenth century in Byzantine church-painting, and that there is a genuine continuity between the two points in time.