Rare Panoramic Micromosaics of the Eternal City

Rare Panoramic Micromosaics of the Eternal City

Two spectacular works by Cavaliere Luigi A. Gallandt depict scenes of the Campo Vaccino and the Colosseum that have fascinated visitors to Rome for centuries.
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Two spectacular works by Cavaliere Luigi A. Gallandt depict scenes of the Campo Vaccino and the Colosseum that have fascinated visitors to Rome for centuries.

T he popularity of micromosaics depicting panoramic views of the ‘Eternal City’ was extensively spearheaded by Grand Tourists of the 19th century who wished to bring back souvenirs, treasured tokens of their Roman pilgrimage. Nevertheless, the monumental scale and quality of two of the lots offered in Sotheby’s upcoming STONE: Marble and Hardstones sale on 4 December, surpass this concept and are works of art in their own right.

Achieved by one of the leading Italian mosaicists of the 19th century, they both illustrate the fascination to memorialize Antique monuments imbued with the grandeur of Rome and would be rare and definitive trophies in any collection. Cavaliere Luigi A. Gallandt’s “vedute” of the Roman Forum and Colosseum create a readable landscape dedicated to conveying the historical, architectural and social importance and scale of these monuments.

The Roman Forum

“I stood in the Roman Forum! - Amidst its silence and desertion, how forcibly did the memory of ages that were fled speak to the soul! How did every broken pillar and fallen capital tell of former greatness,” wrote Charlotte Eaton in Rome, in the Nineteenth Century.

Engraving of The Campo Vaccino by Giuseppe Vasi, circa 1765 © Cleveland Museum of Art

The Roman Forum, also known as Campo Vaccino, was a site located at the centre of the ancient city of Rome and became the religious, social, economic, legal, and political hub of the Roman Empire. Between the Palatine Hill and Capitoline Hill, the Forum became the home to many of the Eternal City’s most impressive temples and monuments, which still attract many visitors today.

Photograph of the Roman Forum by Robert Macphersonm 1850s © J. Paul Getty Museum

At first, it essentially served as a marketplace for day-to-day shopping. Over time, it became much more versatile and functional, as public affairs were conducted in the area. When the Roman Republic came to be in 509 BC, the area retained its public use, and was the setting for processions and elections, and eventually where the Roman Senate gathered.

With neat greenery acting as a key element enhancing the micromosaic’s picturesque aesthetic, Gallandt presents the Roman Forum as clearly as possible, devoid of its filth and piles of dirt. The view Gallandt chooses is taken from the Campidoglio looking south towards the Colosseum. From left to right, there are: the Baroque church of S.S. Martina e Luca, the Temple of Emperor Vespasian (79-87 AD), the Arch of Septinius (203 AD), the Temple of Saturn (497 BC), the column of Phocas (608 AD), the Colosseum, the Church of S. Francesco Romano, the Arch of Titus (81 AD), the large basin for the cattle market in front of the three columns of the Temple of Castor and Pollux (495 BC), the Church of Santa Maria Antiqua and the Caelian Hill.

The Colosseum

A visit to the Colosseum, especially a moonlight tour of the monument, was a staple of any Grand Tour itinerary in Rome. “It is so huge that the mind cannot retain its image; one remembers it as smaller than it is, so that every time one returns to it, one is astounded by its size,” J.W. Goethe famously said about the Colosseum. Even the figures in the foreground of this panel seem to stop in awe at the scale and beauty of the building. Although Grand Tourists such as Horace Walpole dreamed to buy the Colosseum, they had to settle for taking masonry fragments of the building, prints, photographs and micromosaics as mementos instead.

View of the Colosseum by Giovanni Paolo Panini, 1747 © The Walters Art Museum

Just east of the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, also known as the Amphitheatre of Flavius, was commissioned around 70-72 AD by Emperor Vespasian of the Flavian dynasty, as a gift to the Roman people. Since it was built to keep the citizens occupied and entertained, to provide free admission and food at public expense, the opening of the Colosseum was followed by one hundred days of blood sport, including gladiatorial combats and wild animal fights.

The final stages of construction of the Colosseum were completed under the reign of Titus’ brother and successor, Domitian. After four centuries of active use, the site fell into neglect and up until the mid-18th century, it was plundered for new building materials. Though two thirds of the original Colosseum has been destroyed over time, the amphitheatre remains the largest of around two hundred amphitheatres in the Roman Empire.

With the Titus fountain in front of it and the arch of Constantine on the right, it is the western side of the Colosseum that is featured on this micromosaic – the view Grand Tourists would have had of the monument when strolling down from the Roman Forum. This angle fittingly showcases both the whole and fragmented aspects of the Colosseum. In this way, Gallandt captures the ruinous and picturesque state of the monument, with little tufts of greenery growing on its façade, as well as its grand scale in a vast and desolate setting, with the absence of surroundings and with the diminished presence of the city in the background. In their writings, visitors expressed their fondness for the monument and more specifically their fascination with the Colosseum’s ruins. The site bore a connection with time and the past. It acted as a mediator between man and nature and as a kind of memento mori: “The ruin is more gloriously beautiful; possibly more beautiful than when it was quite whole,” reminisced Hester Piozzi in Women’s Travel Writings in Italy.

Cavaliere Luigi A. Gallandt

While the production of micromosaics was largely monopolized by the Studio del Mosaico Vaticano, private micromosaic workshops flourished from the beginning of the 19th century in Rome. Conveniently settled in the centre of the city near the Piazza di Spagna where most Grand Tourists lodged, Luigi A. Gallandt was active and highly successful from the mid-19th century through to the 1880s.

Gallandt was part of a prestigious group of Roman mosaicisti who had the privilege to be advertised in the Monaci guides: Gallandt is featured in the 1874, 1881 and 1882 publications. In 1881, he advertises his studio as ‘Manufacture of Mosaics, founded in 1850 by Chevalier L. Gallandt. Esteemed foreign visitors are invited to honour this establishment during their visit. In it they will find a great assortment of mosaics’.

Since he earned the title of Cavaliere (the equivalent of knighthood), Gallandt’s virtuosity was recognized and well established in Rome, which allowed him to produce large panels and smaller objects such as button studs for the most affluent visitors and aristocrats visiting the city. The mosaicist undoubtedly produced one of the most detailed micromosaics of the Roman forum and Colosseum.

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