Ferocious big cat, teeth and claws bared. Detail of Late Roman floor mosaic in peristyle adjoining triclinium (dining room) at Villa Romana del Casale, Piazza Armerina, Sicily, Italy.
Piazza Armerina, Enna Province, Sicily, Italy: mosaic pavement at Villa Romana del Casale, built in the early 300s CE and one of the grandest examples of a Late Roman villa. The mosaic in this image is in an oval peristyle adjoining a triclinium (dining room) at the villa. It features animals and birds in a freeform design. (Mosaics in a peristyle in the villa’s central courtyard also feature animals and birds, but in a geometric pattern of squares and circles.) The Villa Romana del Casale was inhabited for at least 150 years after it was built in the early 300s, but was badly damaged by the Vandals in the late 400s, then completely abandoned after a mudslide in the 1100s. In the 1950s the villa’s archaeological treasures were unearthed. Today, it is accepted that the villa was the property of a high-level senatorial aristocrat, although some have suggested an Emperor as owner. The Villa Romana del Casale is now protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Size: 2798px × 2798px
Location: Villa Romana del Casale, Piazza Armerina, Enna Province, Sicily, Italy
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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