Italy, Rome, second quarter 19th century

The present panel is a remarkable achievement of a particular genre in micromosaic history emulating floral still-life paintings in oil from the first half of the 19th century. When referring to floral still life panels, the renowned micromosaics expert Jeannette Gabriel states in the Gilbert catalogue that "their naturalistic execution would have been among the most difficult challenges for a mosaicist" (Gabriel, 2016, p.65), and the present panel is certainly a good example of this. The best Roman mosaicists such as Barberi workshop and particularly Federico Campanili, distinguished themselves in this particular genre. Gonzàlez-Palacios has suggested that Campanili's subjects were sometimes taken from the Dutch master Daniel Seghers (d. 1661), who in addition to painting flowers for the works of Rubens also independently executed numerous floral still-lifes (see A. Gonzàlez-Palacios and S. Röttgen, The Art of Mosaics - Selections from the Gilbert Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1982, no. 97). Nonetheless, the present lot is singular in its use of a light blue ground, a popular choice for grounds on works produced in Giacomo Raffaelli’s studio a few decades earlier, but rarely seen in this scale and date. The butterfly is also a quintessential Raffaelli motif, here incorporated on a larger still life.