BY DOMENICO PIAZZOLI (FL. 1804-1827), ROME, CIRCA 1820, THE MICROMOSAIC, ROME, CIRCA 1790

There are several examples of micromosaics of seated dogs, and the composition probably originally came from the animal painter Johann Wenceslaus Peter, who worked in Rome during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Often depicted from a real-life model, dogs are symbolic of loyalty.