BY PIETRO BELLI (FL. 1825-1828), MARKED, ROME, CIRCA 1825, THE MICROMOSAIC ATTRIBUTED TO GIACOMO RAFFAELLI (FL. 1753-1836), ROME, CIRCA 1785-1800

One of the most celebrated artists in the fields of mosaics and hardstones and credited with the actual invention of micromosaics, Giacomo Raffaelli (1753-1836) was extensively patronised by Pope Pius XV (d. 1799), and worked in both the Vatican workshops as well as from his own studio in the Piazza di Spagna. Raffaelli often depicted animals in his work and these mosaics were usually small in size. There are several examples of micromosaics of seated dogs attributed to Raffaelli and the composition probably originally came from the animal painter Johann Wenzel Peter, who worked in Rome during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.