Lot 459 | A LARGE GRAND TOUR MICROMOSAIC SET IN A WOODEN FRAME. DOVES OF PLINY ON A FOUNTAIN.

Bertolami Fine Art - Piazza Lovatelli 1, 00186 Roma

A LARGE GRAND TOUR MICROMOSAIC SET IN A WOODEN FRAME. DOVES OF PLINY ON A FOUNTAIN.

A LARGE GRAND TOUR MICROMOSAIC SET IN A WOODEN FRAME. DOVES OF PLINY ON A FOUNTAIN.

18th century

Diam. 77 mm

In the Circle of Giacomo Raffaelli (February 2, 1753 – October 11, 1836). These doves, known as the Capitoline Doves or Doves of Pliny, appear frequently as the subject of micromosaics. The image comes from a Roman floor mosaic discovered in 1737 at Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli, which in turn is believed to be a copy of a lost ancient Greek mosaic at Pergamon. The original is described by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia (XXXVI, 184): "There is a stupendous dove which drinks and darkens the water with the shadow of its head, while others sun themselves and scratch themselves on the edge of a cantharus".

The same subject was repeated by Giacomo Raffaelli on at least five other occasions, and the oldest specimen known to date, dated 1778, is the one kept in the British Museum in London, while the others are in the Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Vatican Museums, the Gilbert Collection in London and the Savelli Collection in Rome.



J. Hanisee Gabriel, The Gilbert Collection Micromosaics, Londra 2000, p. 14;

M.G. Branchetti, Collezione Savelli. Mosaici minuti romani, Roma 2004, p. 19 Anna Maria Massinelli, Giacomo Raffaeli (1753 -1836) Maestro di stile e di mosaico, Inprogress S.r.l. 2018,

Provenance: U.K private collection