Mosaic Floor Cloth

An original composition inspired by the Roman tessellated tradition — not a copy of any ancient mosaic, but a new design in that spirit.

This floor cloth is an original composition: the design draws on the vocabulary of Roman tessellated mosaic — the Greek key border, the central roundel, the scattered sea creatures — but the arrangement, the octopus medallion at its heart, and the overall composition are entirely my own invention. The cloth is painted to read as stone tesserae, with grid lines and the slight irregularity of individual tiles giving the illusion of a mosaic floor laid on bare wooden boards. The image has circulated widely online, with many people claiming it to be a genuine ancient mosaic from Pompeii. It is not. It is a painted floor cloth, made in San Francisco in 2008, and I hold the copyright to the image.