Cupids depicted in the early fourth-century CE mosaics of the Roman villa at Piazza Armerina in Sicily are marked with a V on their foreheads; this has been explained as a symbol connected to a workshop. I adduce evidence from Roman literature and from the artistic tradition of Cupid in Roman art that suggests the mark is, in fact, the stigma, a tattoo regularly applied by the Romans to people convicted of serious crimes. This adds a new iconographic component to the well-known artistic repertoire of Cupid Punished in Roman art. I suggest ways in which the motif may have functioned in the context of the iconography of the villa’s mosaics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cupids depicted in the early fourth-century CE mosaics of the Roman villa at Piazza Armerina in Sicily are marked with a V on their foreheads; this has been explained as a symbol connected to a workshop. I adduce evidence from Roman literature and from the artistic tradition of Cupid in Roman art that suggests the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1637,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[906],"tags":[5,29,42],"issues":[784],"region":[801],"class_list":["post-1638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archaeological-note","tag-iconography","tag-romanperiod","tag-mosaics","issues-784","region-italy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n