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A MICRO MOSAIC TABLE TOP ATTRIBUTED TO GIACOMO RAFFAELLI
By Jeanette Hanisee Gabriel
Giacomo Raffaelli came from a family that supplied the Vatican Mosaic Workshop with smalti, the material of which micromosaics are made. Giacomo was trained as a painter and sculptor from an early age, and became a master in Florentine hardstone mosaics and Roman micromosaics. He often expressed his genius by combining both mosaic techniques in the same works of art. Most importantly, Raffaelli is credited with the invention of micromosaics. In 1775, at age twenty-two, he gave the first exhibition at his Rome studio of miniature mosaics, now known as micromosaics. This success led to a brilliant career in which he produced a vast number and variety of works, ranging from mosaic floors, tables, and monumental clocks to miniature mosaics small enough to fit on a snuffbox or brooch. He sometimes signed his work on the copper backs of his mosaics. One of his earliest known examples is a small round plaque, signed and dated 1779, depicting the Doves of Pliny (British Museum). However, numerous pieces attributed to Raffaelli, such as the eight miniature mosaics on an inkstand in the Wallace Collection, are unmarked.
A number of characteristics, seen on the present lot, identify it as a mosaic by Raffaelli. Among these is his use of a white background composed of parallel lines of square tesserae. This tabletop design includes his trademark depictions of goldfinches, butterflies, classical urns, and his delicate interpretations of neo-classical twining vines and berries. On close examination, one can see that Raffaelli outlines his birds and butterflies with white, rectilinear tesserae. Another device he employes is the use of octagonally-framed objects, such as the urns on each side, and the use of millefiore borders, which appear on the outer mosaic reserves. This tabletop's outer band of marble is typical of his characteristic integration of hardstone with micromosaics.
Raffaelli's fame soon led to the production of mosaics for the courts of Europe. In 1787, King Stanislaus II Augustus of Poland, a lifelong patron, honored Giacomo and gave him a noble title. Giacomo executed many works for the Polish Court including a mosaic portrait of the King's brother, Prince Michal Poniatowski, Bishop of Poland.
In 1804, Pope Pius VII gave Napoleon one of the greatest masterpieces Raffaelli ever created; a hardstone and micromosaic triumphal arch, encasing a clock by Breguet,(Gilbert Collection). Later that year, Raffaelli was sent to Milan to direct a mosaic workshop founded at Napoleon's orders. In 1809, Napoleon commissioned a 14 x 31 foot, life-size copy of Leonardo's Last Supper. This monumental mosaic was not completed until 1817, after Napoleon's fall; Francis I, Emperor of Austria, subsequently ordered the mosaic brought to Vienna, where it was later installed in the Viennese Minoritenkirche.
Early in the nineteenth century, Raffaelli declined an invitation to start a Russian School of mosaics in Saint Petersburg. After his death, the Hermitage acquired at least twelve of his works, including five tables. Design elements of the present Amsterdam table can be found in two of Raffaelli's Hermitage mosaics: a micromosaic plaque that depicts another goldfinch on a branch, and a micromosaic table with a white ground and motifs of butterflies (Efimova Nos. 50 & 51).
Discriminating foreign patrons were eager to acquire Raffaelli's elaborate hardstone and micromosaic compositions. Examples of these can be found in England at Temple Newsome, Burton Constable, Syon House and the Wallace Collection. The Gilbert Collection (Victoria and Albert Museum) has numerous micromosaics attributed to Raffaelli, one of these, a round plaque,
depicting a goldfinch, carries identical markings to the right hand bird on the present lot (Gabriel No. 5).
Demand continues for Raffaelli's creations. A table attributed to Raffaelli was sold by the Hickory Museum of Art, in North Carolina, by Brunk's Auction House in 2003 for $400,000. It's white top depicts octagonally framed miniatures of urns like those found on the border of this table. Recently, a small Raffaelli plaque, with a goldfinch on a branch, sold at auction in London. Like the birds on this table, the goldfinch is outlined in white linear tesserae (Christie's South-Kensington, 12 May, 2009, Lot 492).
Given the volume of his output, it is clear that Raffaelli employed mosaicists and craftsmen in other media such as marble, precious stones, and metalwork. He is known to have had studios in several locations. A late eighteenth century mosaic, formerly at Hamilton Palace, has a printed paper label on the back, "Etude de Mosaique de Jacques Raffaelli Place d'Espagne a cote de la Rue Saint Bastaniel" (Christie's New York, 30 March, 1990, Lot 260). Later, he is said to have had a studio, circa 1804, at Via S. Sebastianello." His last known studio was at 92 Via Babuino. All these studios were in an area around the Spanish Steps in Rome, where mosaic workshops were to proliferate in the nineteenth century due to Raffaelli's pioneering advancements in the art of micromosaics.
Literature:
Gabriel, Jeanette Hanisee, Micromosaics: The Gilbert Collection, Philip Wilson, London, 2000.
Efimova, E. M. West European Mosaics of the 13th-19th Centuries in the Collection of the Hermitage, Sovietsky Khudozhnik, Leningrad, 1968.
AN ITALIAN MICROMOSAIC TABLETOP
LATE 18TH CENTURY, ROME, ATTRIBUTED TO GIACOMO RAFFAELLI (1753-1836), THE ORMOLU-MOUNTED EBONY AND SATINWOOD STAND NORTH EUROPEAN AND OF THE SAME PERIOD
Details
AN ITALIAN MICROMOSAIC TABLETOP
LATE 18TH CENTURY, ROME, ATTRIBUTED TO GIACOMO RAFFAELLI (1753-1836), THE ORMOLU-MOUNTED EBONY AND SATINWOOD STAND NORTH EUROPEAN AND OF THE SAME PERIOD
Decorated overall with mille-raie bands the moulded oval top inlaid centrally with a goldfinch and a ground finch sitting on a branch with peaches, surrounded by a flower border and a band with flower garlands, various butterflies and octagonal panels with urns, the hexagonal stem with brass boss and tripartite base with sabre legs, on brass caps with sunken castors
78 cm. high x 85 cm. wide x 67 cm. deep
LATE 18TH CENTURY, ROME, ATTRIBUTED TO GIACOMO RAFFAELLI (1753-1836), THE ORMOLU-MOUNTED EBONY AND SATINWOOD STAND NORTH EUROPEAN AND OF THE SAME PERIOD
Decorated overall with mille-raie bands the moulded oval top inlaid centrally with a goldfinch and a ground finch sitting on a branch with peaches, surrounded by a flower border and a band with flower garlands, various butterflies and octagonal panels with urns, the hexagonal stem with brass boss and tripartite base with sabre legs, on brass caps with sunken castors
78 cm. high x 85 cm. wide x 67 cm. deep
Brought to you by
Sabine Dalmeijer
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