There are a nunber of excellent mosaic floor remains found in the Adana Museum mainly up on the top floor of this converted warehouse, including a floor from a synagogue which depicts the Isaianic scene of Isaiah’s vision of animal paradise and one about Noah’s ark and his animals. Here are some samples. I’ll let you guess which is from Isaiah and which is from Genesis.
There is also considerable funerary art, including the so-called sarcophagus of Achilles, which is spectacular, but alas, no Achilles.
Contrast the above with this very plain sarcophagus….
Busts of the living became popular among elite Romans in this era.
While busts might be commissioned by family members, public statues were another matter, requiring public approval, as today. Here is a statue of a priest for example,
This excellent bronze statue from the first century A.D. displays a Roman patrician. The Romans tended to want realism in their portraits, the Greeks, more idealism. But this statue is amazingly detailed and impressive on any showing.
By contrast, consider this young child portrait done in marble.
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