Attributed to Antonio Aguatti

The same composition in micromosaic signed by Aguatti is found on a snuffbox in the Gilbert Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. no. LOAN:GILBERT.489:1, 2-2008). Antonio Aguatti was a celebrated mosaicist active in Piazza di Spagna, Rome, and associated with the Vatican workshops. Aguatti's sought-after virtuoso works were copied by other mosaicists. The high quality of the present micromosaic, and the use of shapes other than squares or rectangles (note the dog's pelt and the blades of glass), as well as the closeness to the Gilbert collection mosaic, would substantiate a tentative attribution to Aguatti himself or his workshop.