A Small Framed Italian Ornithological Micromosaic Panel, attributed to Giacomo Raffaelli, Rome, Last Quarter 18th Century

Christie’s London, 13 December 2001, lot 443

Giacomo Raffaelli (b. Rome 1753-1836)

He studied painting and sculpture from a young age and is believed to originate from a family who provided smalti at the Vatican Mosaic Workshop. According to Gabriel, op. cit., p. 288, `He became one of the most celebrated artists in the fields of mosaic and hardstones, credited with the invention of micromosaics'. He is known to have staged the first recorded exhibition of this type of work in his studio in Rome in 1775. Furthermore, he supplied foreign buyers at an early stage in his career. Alvar González-Palacios states that his studio was at via S. Sebastianello and on 5th October 1787, he was awarded the title, Councillor of Liberal Arts by Stanislaus II Augustus, King of Poland (r. 1764-95). He moved to Milan in 1804 to direct a mosaics workshop which had been founded the previous year on Napoleon's orders by Eugene Beauharnais. Raffaelli returned to Rome from Milan between 1817 and 1820. He died in 1836, at his home at 92 via Babuino in a house designed by Valadier. 

An almost identical micromosaic panel depicting an identical goldfinch on a branch with serpent below, (offered as part of a pair, both with inscribed Hamilton Palace label) and one with inscribed label Etude de Mosaique de Jacques Raffaelli/Place d'Espagne à côté de la rue Bastianel', was sold Pelham The Public and The Private, Sotheby's London, 8 March 2016, lot 141.