Describe the characteristics of the Modern copy in Alexander Mosaic's History of the mosaic.
In 2003, the International Center for the Study and Teaching of Mosaic (CISIM) in Ravenna, Italy, proposed creating a copy of the mosaic. After CISIM received approval for the project, the mosaic master Severo Bignami and his eight-person team took a large photograph of the mosaic, made a tracing of the image with a dark marker and created a negative impression of it.
The team composed the mosaic in sections in 44 clay frames, trying to preserve the pieces of the mosaic in the exact positions they are in the original mosaic. They had to keep the plates wet at all times. Then they pressed a tissue on the clay to create an image of the outlines of the mosaic in the clay. The team recreated the mosaic with about 2 million pieces of various marble types. When they had placed all the pieces, they covered the result with a layer of glue and gauze and pulled it out of the clay. They placed each section on synthetic concrete and then united the sections with the compound of glass, wool and plastic.
The project took 22 months and cost the equivalent of $216,000. The copy was installed in the House of the Faun in 2005.
Mosaic mosaic House of the Faun Ravenna