Ricordi di Roma

If you had lived at the end of the 18th century, you might have wanted to buy this as a souvenir of your visit to Rome.

Mosaics had long been in the tradition of art in Italy but, it was when there were serious problems with damp in the Basilica of St. Peters that a mosaic school was created. Today we have many ways in which we can preserve art but, in the 18th century there was not much they could do to save crumbling masterpieces in the Vatican. The priests set about making images of the art in the only way they knew would last indefinitely, in mosaic.
A top secret process produced enamel rods from which minuscule 'tesserae' were cut. Although, initially, all the blocks were square they devised ways in which the enamel could be shaped so that individual pieces resembled brush strokes which, intricately put together, produced the nearest they had to a photograph.

By the mid 18th century the priest found that they could make a much needed income by selling their mosaics in the form of plaques and jewelery to the gentry who visited Rome during the period known as the Gran Turismo. Larger items such as table tops, pictures and more elaborate jewellery went home with kings, queens and the most noble of Europe's courts.

My late brother in law was a radiologist in the Vatican and I was lucky to be able to visit areas that are not normally accessible. One of my favourite memories is of the rooms where the church holds an archive of just short of 30,000 different colours of enamel rods, each colour in it's own drawer, which were used to make mosaics and now are a priceless resource for repairs to ancient works.

I was fascinated by these micro mosaics so, when I found this years later in a sale here in the UK it was a must have. It's a paper weight, only 17cms across and seen from a distance you would think it was a painting.

This has a stone missing and the surrounding marble has been damaged, but it is original albeit, it's value is significantly lower than if it were in pristine condition. There is absolutely no paint... just a jigsaw of enamel tesserae with barley a space between each piece. Even the window surrounds are individual pieces.