Descrizione

A VIEW WITH RUINS AND A TEMPLE, Micro-mosaic (Italy, very early 19th cent.)

Micro-mosaic on a round copper base. Ø 68 mm., lying on a thin porphyry base (broken), within a brass ring, preserved in its original flat cylindric calf case, gilt on the lid (which is lined with silk inside), and still with its original tiny hook for closure.

Among the pivotal destinations of the Grand Tour, Rome was the most visited place. The extraordinarily evocative character of the “Città Eterna” constantly attracted a huge number of visitors: it is estimated that between 1760 and 1780 no less than forty thousand foreigners wandered among its ruins. Between them sons and heirs of the noblest families, men of letters, artists and the most refined connoisseurs. The presence in Rome of the richest and most ambitious European society gave rise to a flourishing and dynamic art market capable of offering refined souvenirs to travellers, eager to buy objects recalling the memory of the places visited. Among these, micro-mosaics had great success. The profession of mosaicist, of secular tradition, found in this period a renewed success so that many of the best artificers in this art opened their own atelier in which exhibiting and selling their works made with the ancient technique of “mosaico minuto”. These were a sort of small paintings made with tiny glass tiles that faithfully reproduced views of the city, landscapes of the Roman countryside and the most representative monuments of antiquity. Very often they were used to decorate small objects such as snuffboxes, boxes and even jewellery. Other times, however, they remained jealously guarded in the same cases in which they were purchased, to be carefully extracted whenever there was a desire to show or remind the suggestions of their journey.