$17, $12 for Members, $8 Concession

Date:  Friday 1-Jul-2022
Single session (Ended)
Time 2:00pm for 1 hr
Venue: Glyde-In Garden Room
Facilitator: Fausto Butta

In 2005, while building a parking area, a fortuitous discovery brought to light over 400 square metres of polychrome mosaics of a Roman villa outside the wall of Spello, a little town in Umbria, central Italy. While mosaics of this villa suggest it belonged to a wealthy man, most likely a wine producer, mosaics at a Roman villa in Piazza Armerina, Sicily reveal a different social and political status of its owner. Evidence suggests that this luxurious Sicilian villa (known as Villa del Casale) was, for a short period of time, the residence of co-emperor Maximian, after he retired in 305. Dr Fausto Butta, Honorary Research Fellow at UWA, will explain how these two case studies confirm both the social function of Roman art and their craftsmen' status within Roman society.