ATTRIBUTED TO FEDERICO CAMPANILI (ACTIVE SECOND HALF 19TH CENTURY), CIRCA 1860
ATTRIBUTED TO FEDERICO CAMPANILI (ACTIVE SECOND HALF 19TH CENTURY), CIRCA 1860
ATTRIBUTED TO FEDERICO CAMPANILI (ACTIVE SECOND HALF 19TH CENTURY), CIRCA 1860
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ATTRIBUTED TO FEDERICO CAMPANILI (ACTIVE SECOND HALF 19TH CENTURY), CIRCA 1860

A micromosaic still life with flowers

Details
ATTRIBUTED TO FEDERICO CAMPANILI (ACTIVE SECOND HALF 19TH CENTURY), CIRCA 1860
A micromosaic still life with flowers
depicting an urn filled with flowers, including roses, iris, violets, dahlias and ranunculus, the urn with insignia for the Vatican mosaic studio 'R F S P V', mitre and crossed keys, in a gilt metal oval frame, set within a velvet surround and giltwood frame
21 ½ x 17 ¼ in. (54.5 x 44 cm.) the oval mosaic
39 ¾ x 34 ¾ in. (101 x 88.5 cm.), the frame
Literature
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
J. H. Gabriel, Micromosaics: The Gilbert Collection, London, 2000, cat. 89, p. 157.
J. H. Gabriel, Micromosaics: Private Collections, London, 2016, cat. 28, p. 65.
A. González-Palacios, The Art of Mosaics: Selections from the Gilbert Collection, Los Angeles, 1982, cat. 99., p. 204.

Brought to you by

Lucy Speelman
Lucy Speelman Junior Specialist, Head of Part II

Lot Essay

Evoking luxuriant Baroque flower paintings of the 17th century, this large and impressive panel illustrates in profound its complexity and technical skill the most difficult of micromosaic disciplines: floral still-life. The work is wholly characteristic of the output of the celebrated studio mosaicist, Federico Campanili, who is recorded as being active from 1861 to 1880 in the Vatican Workshop in Rome, while his son, also a flower specialist, was actively producing similar mosaic works through the early 20th century.

Research at the Vatican archives by Dr. Daniel Pergolizi documents the production between 1858 and 1864 of different mosaics with Vasi con Fiori e picchi in smalti filait by Campanili. Another mosaic of similar composition within a lapis lazuli-colored vase, though unattributed, is illustrated in J. H. Gabriel, Micromosaics: The Gilbert Collection, London, 2000, cat. 89, p. 157. Together with another panel sold at Bonham’s London, 5 April 2017, lot 13, the present work joins a series of flower studies set apart by a variegated brown ground executed entirely of mosaic rather than a inlaid into slate or black marble.

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