Plate with micromosaic. Italy, ca. 1850

Plate with micromosaic. Italy, ca. 1850.
Nero Del Belgio with micromosaic inlay.
Restored.
Measurements: 56 cm (diameter) x 1.5 cm (thickness).

At the center of this circular table top is depicted a medallion with the Basilica of San Marco. Surrounding it are four white doves resting their feet on delicate roses. The exquisite technique of the micromosaics stands out, with an acute detailing and a surprising chromatic variety.

In the time of Charles X, micromosaic was a motif widely used in aristocratic furniture. In the 19th century it was customary to give tables with micromosaic tops to diplomats. The greatest masters of this type of micromosaic table were Michelangelo Barberi and Antonio Mora, some of which are preserved in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and belonged to Catherine the Great. The "mosaic of Pliny" gave a great impulse to the development of the micromosaic, given the tiny size of the tesserae. These evolved from rectangular or square to irregular format, which sharpened the detail and chromatic variety.
The art of the micromosaic came to fruition during the 18th and 19th centuries. The term was coined by Sir Arthur Gilbert to refer to mosaics made with small pieces of enamel. The use of birds was frequent in Florentine mosaics to represent the seasons as early as the Renaissance, becoming more frequent during the Baroque, as emblems of purity and the soul. The art of micromosaic was born in the Vatican to cope with the deterioration of its collection of paintings. Realizing that architectural mosaics retained their color over time, the papal workshops began experimenting with the technique of glass mosaic to reproduce the masterpieces. The Vatican kept the secret of the formula that allowed an exact reproduction with micromosaics whose lack of brightness and chromatic quality made the copy indistinguishable from the original painting. Already in the 19th century, private workshops began to proliferate in Rome in response to the demand of the tourist market. Commercial mosaics became available in a variety of decorative pieces. Many of them are preserved in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, in the Gilbert Collection in London and in the Vatican itself.