A very fine Italian micromosaic table top, Roman circa 1830

the circular top centered by the figure of Cupid shooting an arrow from his chariot against a sunset background, surrounded by a floral wreath and eight further roundels each including a putto with different attributes within a further vine leaf border and a Sienna marble moulded edge, inset in a 19th century giltwood table carved with stylised scrolls and raised on four square tapering legs surmounted by acanthus leaf capitols and joined by a stretcher centered a rocaille finial, on toupie feet 

Comparative Literature:
Alvar Gonzalez-Palacios & Steffi Röttgen, The Art of Mosaics, Selections from the Gilbert Collection,  Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1982, no. 72, page 166, catalogue entry by Alvar Gonzalez-Palacios.                                                                                             Efimova, Mozaika, pp. 12, 103, pL 68 and Efpmova, Barberi, p. 369ff.

The design of the present table with the iconography of `the Triumph of Love' is related to the outstanding mosaic table top in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, see Efimova op. cit., called 'The Triumph of Love' made in Rome in 1833 by Michelangelo Barberi (1787-1S67), -reproduced here in fig. 1, from the original cartoon by the Russian artist F.A. Bruni. The allegorical images represented for Barberi the triumph of love over all the activities of man. The Hermitage table was sold to Czar Nicholas I during a trip to Italy, although it had been originally intended for Pius VII (for the Campidoglio) who died before he completed the purchase.

The subject of the Hermitage table was also reproduced by several other leading mosaicists in Rome including Cavaliere Luigi Moglia, who exhibited his version at the Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851 (see The Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the Great Exhibition, 1851, London, Vol. Ill, page 1286, plate 181.) Benedetto Boschetti (see later) apparently copied the Barberi table twice according to 1847 records and also exhibited one of these at the Crystal Palace Exhibition. There is in the Catalogue op. cit., page 1235, no l7, the following entry, 'Two mosaic tables, of three feet diameter each, in Byzantine style, representing the Triumph of Love and the Blessed Soul'.

Another version of the `Triumph of Love ' table also signed 'B.Boschetti, F.R.,' (Fecit Roma) is in the Gilbert collection..

The Gilbert table as well as the table sold by Sotheby's as lot 250, 13th December 1996,(signed by Boschetti and dated 1829,  (£115,000) reproduced here in fig.2) are not identical to the Hermitage table but an adaptation of it. Barberi, in a book on mosaics published by him in 1856, explained the iconography of his table and stated that he was inspired by Petrarch's description of Amor in his `Trionfo d 'amore'.

` I saw a victorious and exalted leader                                                Quite !ike one of those who in Campidoglio                                       drives a triumphal chariot in great glory.                                              Four steeds there were, whiter yet than snow,                                         On the chariot of fire was a cruel youth                                                  with bow in hand and arrows at his side;                                             Nothing did he fear, therefore he wore neither mail nor shield          but on his shoulders only two great wings                                                of a thousand colours, otherwise he was nude.'

Benedetto Boschetti is to date not well documented although some of his works have been identified and his workshop in Via Condotti, no. 74, was listed in 1856, by Bonfigli in the Artistical Directory or Guide to the Studios of The Italian and Foreign Painters and Sculptors, Rome, 1856, which stated that 'The Establishment is particularly conspicuous for its great variety of marble works, bronzes, candelabras, table-tops, etc. besides a rich collection of the best mosaics and shell engravings'  and Boschetti had 'attained the the Prize Medal at  the Exhibition in London'. Boschetti is also mentioned in the 1858, 1867 and 1869 editions of Murray's Handbook, p.XXVI. sec. 36.