Attributed to Giacomo Raffaelli (1753-1836)

RELATED LITERATURE

Anna Maria Massinelli, Giacomo Raffaelli (1753-1836), Maestro di stilo e di mosaico, 2018, p.230.

Jeanette Hanisee Gabriel, Micromosaics: Private Collections, 2016, nr. 74, p.121

This exquisite micromosaic depicting a goldfinch protecting his nest from a serpent is of the minute quality that made Giacomo Raffaelli so famous throughout Europe, and a subject matter that that he used in other occasions. Inspired by publications such as Comte Buffon’s Histoire Naturelle, with engravings by Martinet, Raffaelli presents his animals in their natural habitat, in movement, departing from a more traditional static depiction. A larger panel from the Dukes of Hamilton collection (together with its pair), bearing his label, depicts the same scene and was sold at Sotheby’s London, Pelham: the Public and the Private, 8th March 2016, lot 142, for £233,000. An identical plaque to the present lot, signed ‘Giacomo Raffaelli’ and dated from 1796 was sold Christie’s London, 5th December 2019, lot 16, for £22,500. Another mosaic with the same composition is incorporated in an inkstand which belonged to the 3rd Marquess of Hertford, now in the Wallace Collection, London (F501).