ROMAN CHI RHO MOSAIC EUROPE / NEAR EAST, LATE 4TH CENTURY A.D. hard stone tesserae, a large Chi Rho and Alpha and Omega in the centre, surrounded by bands of red, white, yellow, pink and green tesserae (185cm x 125cm) Footnote: Provenance: European private collection, acquired 1980s Private collection, United Kingdom, acquired on the London art market in 2010 Note: After more than two centuries of intermittent but often intensive persecution, Christianity was granted legal status across the Roman Empire in 313 A.D. by the Emperor Constantine I, himself a Christian convert. Over time mosaics with overt Christian symbolism became favoured as a statement of both religious identity and wealth. The Chi Rho symbol featured in the present example was one of the earliest forms of christogram and was used by Constantine himself as part of his military standard.