AN ITALIAN MICROMOSAIC PLAQUE
Lot 326

AN ITALIAN MICROMOSAIC PLAQUE

MID-19TH CENTURY

Closed13 March 2012

Price Realised

GBP 10,000

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AN ITALIAN MICROMOSAIC PLAQUE
MID-19TH CENTURY
With a malachite border, the centre inlaid the Doves of Pliny
14 x 10 1/8 in. (35.5 x 25.7 cm.)

Specialist note

The original mosaic panel was discovered in 1737 by Monsignor Furietti on the floor of the Villa of Hadrian (125-133 A.D.), and later purchased by Clement XIII.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the much celebrated Capitoline Doves of Pliny was perhaps the most popular mosaic preserved from antiquity and as such, the most frequently repeated by mosaicists. The scene was replicated many times by the makers of shell cameos and glass micromosaics for jewellery, box lids and plaques of all sizes. The work is preserved today in the Museo Capitolino in Rome.