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Palatine Museum

Panel with opus sectile

This panel was unearthed by Pietro Rosa in the course of the excavations that took place between 1865 and 1867 in several areas of the Domus Tiberiana. Inspired by textile patterns and created using various types of marbles and colored stones, the panel is comprised of a central field framed by three different decorative borders. In the panel’s center, a stylized open lotus flower is formed by four squares with concave edges; each “petal” is decorated by a cross-shaped pattern made up of four discs arranged around a fifth, smaller disc. Along the panel’s edges, the innermost, undecorated frame is followed by a second frame with a herringbone pattern and a four-pointed star in each corner. The outermost frame has an egg-and-dart pattern with a trilobed leaf in each corner. This piece is on display at the Palatine Museum and is part of the museum’s accessibility route: next to the original are four pieces of ancient marble available for all visitors to explore.