Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Mosaic with Epitaph
North African (Henchir Chigarnia, Tunisia)
Not on view
This mosaic panel comprises two distinct parts. The upper section features a medallion with a Christogram, an abbreviation of the name Jesus Christ, and inverted alpha and omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, symbolizing the beginning and the end from the book of Revelation. An epitaph, in Latin, is spread over eight lines and occupies the lower section of the panel. The text tells us that the deceased, F. V. Dion, died at the age of eighty and specifies that he planted four thousand (olive) trees during his lifetime. Olive cultivation, along with that of grains, was the main agricultural activity of Proconsular Africa (Carthage and environs).
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