Mérida re-revisited. Neue Untersuchungen zu dem sogenannten kosmologischen Mosaik in Mérida

Abstract

In some personifications on the decorative panel of the cosmological mosaic, a tension arises between the iconography and the inscription of the respective figures. In the present work the tension-filled relationship between image and writing of six selected personifications is classified in more detail by a thorough iconographic analysis and the terminology of rhetorical tropes. The personifications Mons, Euphrates, Nilus, Oriens, Occasus and Aeternitas are distinguished by a synecdochic or metonymic relation between image and text. This initially seems contradictory and triggers irritation in the recipient, which, however, can be suspended after successive reflexion. The intended discrepancy between image and text has a direct influence on the narrative content and thus also on the interpretation of the pictorial work.