A Roman Micromosaic Portrait of a Cavalier by Luigi Tarantoni, Vatican Mosaic Workshop, Late 19th Century

Luigi Tarantoni was an active mosaicist in the late nineteenth century. The present work was made at the mosaic workshop of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, as indicated by the signature on the lower right, Tarantoni R.F.S.P, for Reverenda Fabbrica di S.Pietro (Gabriel, 2016, p.313). The workshop, originally founded in 1576 to create and install mosaics in the basilica, was producing portable mosaics to meet demands of the Grand Tourist trade by the nineteenth century (p.96). Portrayals of romantic historical figures such as the cavalier in the present lot were a popular subject matter, evocative of well-known literary characters described in novels by Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) and rendered in genre paintings like those by Ernest Meissonier (1815-1891) and Enrico Tarenghi (1848-1938). Such paintings would have served as visual sources for micromosaics (Gabriel, 2000, p.124).

Similar versions of this micromosaic composition also by Tarantoni have appeared on the market and in private collections. One such example was sold at Sotheby's New York, 14 April 2008, lot 557. Another example is in the Gilbert Collection, now on loan to the Victoria & Albert Museum (see J.H. Gabriel, The Gilbert Collection: Micromosaics, London 2000, p.124).