Description

The infamous ancient Roman mosaic in the vestibule of the House of the Tragic Poet, was found and excavated from under thick ash in Pompeii, Italy. Kim Emerson recreated this custom piece for her dear friend and client who is a canine veterinarian. She was put to the task of keeping the true original design as much as possible, while scaling it down and adapting it for her client’s long-time dream of having this particular mosaic for her own. Kim’s husband, Dennis Reiter, contributed in a major way with his photograph of the image from a quality book, and digitally enlarged it to the desired size, and it was printed in reverse. Each tesserae was glued upside down with temporary flour paste onto the print. When finished, it was flipped into the wet thin-set adhesive onto a backerboard panel - and with so many additional steps in between…And yes, the harness of the dog’s collar appears to have been originally made with gold smalti, so we honored that. The Romans too loved their dogs!