AFTER WENCESLAUS PETER, FIRST HALF 19TH CENTURY

The subject here is attributed to Bohemian-born animal and portrait painter Wenceslaus Peter (d. 1829), who was active in Rome from 1774 until his death. This subject, in addition to other paintings of the same taste distributed by Peter, was frequently repeated by mosaicists in the early 19th Century and later. In 1806, Giuseppe Antonio Guattani describes a panel depicting a fierce battle between a dog and cat in Filippo Puglieschi's mosaic workshop as being "so well conceived and represented by the incomparable Peters, everyone is as delighted to see it, most especially in mosaic, as they are to see the Capitoline Doves." Two similar examples, mounted on a bonbonnière and snuffbox, are illustrated in J. Gabriel, The Gilbert Collection Micromosaics, London, 2000, p. 70 & 180.