Sometime long ago, in the distant past I loved stamps. Had some penfriends abroad and I was always excited to get a letter – with beautiful stamps on it. Collected them, but growing up the world has changed and there were no room left for the stamps. Electronical letters, digital world, virtual reality, but without these mini works of art. So I was glad when I discovered that some collectors digitalized them, so somehow stamps survived the modern world.
In this collection you can see the four most beautiful mosaics found in Pannonia Provincia, Hungary. Let’s examine it in detail, what can we see! Don’t forget, that these stamps are real miniatures, so the photo is bigger than the life-size.
On the first one you can see a putto, a little deity, holding a bunch of grapes. He is an escort of the God Dionysos, he offers the grape for the panther, the sacred animal of the god. Grape is the symbol of wine, the intoxicated condition, the ecstasy of the rite, the cult. See the original mosaic!
the putto is offering a grape
the putto in context: he is offering the grape to a panther
The second mosaic, on the right up shows a dolphin. Beautiful dolphin with a curved back, rightful pride of Pannonia Provincia, a real masterpiece (sorry, I love animal mosaics). It was the ornament of the Governor’s Palace on the Hajógyári Island, a little private island on the Danube at Óbuda. In modern days it became a ship factory, now famous for the annual Sziget Festival (before the age of the Covid). It was excavated just before the second World War, and after the excavation it was buried back. Now there is a golf resort over it, no archaeological park, no museum, just a golf park. Sad story, but shit happens.
the dolphin mosaic from the Governor's Palace
The third one on the left down shows a little bird with some kind of berries in its beak. This mosaic was found in Baláca, not far from Lake Balaton. This was the floor ornament of a Roman villa, a huge and rich villa. It is a museum now, which is worth a visit. That region wasn’t rebuilt, it is deserted, so arceologists can dig and find new and new treasures there. This is a rarely researched zone, By the way this is true for the most part of the country, but nowdays new excavations are promoted, so something started...
little bird beeps berries in Baláca - petrified in a mosaic forever
And the last one is familiar: this is the panther from the first mosaic: the putto offers his grape to this panther. Royal animal of the God Dionysos, god of the intoxication, new life, spiritual things and somehow a new fashionable thing: mindfullness. The panther is an escort of the God, he pulls the chariot of Dionysos.
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