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Lot Essay
A TASTE FOR THE ANTIQUE:
Painstakingly and meticulously decorated by Antonio Aguatti, the most talented mosaicist of his time, this splendid micromosaic table is a celebration of the Grand Tour and, specifically, the rediscovery of the wonders at Pompeii. The inspiration for the mosaic palette – bold reds, blues and yellows set against a contrasting white ground – are drawn from the excavations of miraculously preserved frescoes at Herculaneum in 1738 and Pompeii in 1763. By the mid-18th century both Rome, and to a lesser extent Naples, had become essential destinations on the Grand Tour and its environs became a place in which collectors and intellectuals could admire and acquired ‘souvenirs’ of these new archaeological discoveries. In the late 18th and early 19th century, mosaicists found a cache of inspiration in Piranesi’s publications of views of Rome and in the vividly illustrated tomes compiled by the Niccolini brothers, all of which fueled the obsession with the ‘neo-classical’ into the 1860s.
The central scene, depicting the Phoenician princess’s abduction by Zeus, is based on Michelangelo Maestri’s (d. 1812) series of gouache drawings depicting putti charioteers and other mythological epics, sold The Di Portanova Collection, Christie's, New York, October 20, 2000, lot 22. Maestri’s own designs were based on frescoes by Giulio Romano (d. 1546) for the Villa Lante and, more importantly, the houses of Pompeii, which were later reproduced in the early 19th century by Tommaso Piroli and others (J. Hanisee Gabriel, Micromosaics: Private Collection, 2016, pp. 18). Maestri’s, and therefore Aguatti’s, retelling of Ovid’s tale in Metamorphoses depicts the unravelling events with exceptional artistic expression and uninhibited movement in the otherwise rigid medium of hardstone and mosaic. Here, with expert precision of his craft, Aguatti transforms glass tesserae to paint the scene in minute detail: ‘The fast receding sands/Her right hand grasped a horn/The other lent upon his back/Her fluttering tunic floated in the breeze’ (Ovid, Metamorphoses).
The table base, dating to the mid-19th century and paying homage to the Antique, is derived from the antheniennes of antiquity, notably those found in excavations at Pompeii, and were reproduced by the Neapolitan firm of Chiurazzi and Parisian bronziers Barbedienne, Charpentier and G. Servant. The Parisian bronziers exhibited a series of tripod pedestals and enameled objects of similar design in the 1862 International Exhibition (illustrated in J. Meyer, Great Exhibitions: 1851-1900, London, 2006, pp. 95 and 135) and the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876 (illustrated in Edward Strahan's Illustrated Catalogue of The Masterpieces of the International Exhibition 1876, Gebbie & Barrie, Philadelphia, 1876, p. 393).
ANTONIO AGUATTI:
A member of a dynasty of highly successful mosaicists, Antonio Aguatti (also known as Aquatti), to whom the present lot is attributed, was a limitless talent and virtuoso of mosaic application. The artist was very much at the forefront of technical advancement in the art form and was responsible for the increase in geometric shapes and fused colors of tesserae which allowed for ‘painterly’ expression, particularly in complex figural groups and arrangements of flora and fauna. The technique, on stunning display in the center of this top, is juxtaposed with the traditional use of cubic tesserae, known as smalti, effectively contrasting the artist’s boundless skill in old and new technique. By the 1760s this technique had been so perfected that it was possible to produce rods or threads of colored glass, called smalti filati, thin enough to be cut into the minute tesserae. These tiny individual tesserae in an almost infinite palette of as many as 28,000 colors allowed for mosaic ‘pictures’ rivaling the painted masterworks which they sought to copy. In 1810 his work was awarded a gold medal at the Capitoline exhibition of 'Roman Works of Art and Industry', held at the Campidoglio, and from 1832 until his death in 1846 he was professor of ‘mosaico in piccolo’ at the Vatican workshops.
Although also used by other mosaicisti, the thin micromosaic red-line border seen here appears to have been a motif particularly favored by Aguatti, as shown by its inclusion on a nearly identical top attributed to the artist at Sotheby’s, London, 4 July 2012, lot 37 and another, centered with Fidelity's Triumph, at Christie’s, London, 11 June 1998, lot 60. Both examples also repeat the ribbon-entwined border and the blue and lavender-hued scrolled motif set with emblems of the Four Seasons. The distinctive line also appears in two other tops by Aguatti, one in the Gilbert Collection, London (illustrated Hanisee Gabriel, The Gilbert Collection Micromosaics, 2000 p. 77, cat. 26), the other in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg (see E. M. Efimova, West European Mosaics of the 13-19th Centuries in the Collection of the Hermitage, Leningrad, 1968, no. 48). Michelangelo Maestri’s series of previously discussed gouache drawings served as constant inspiration for Auguatti’s work and further supports the present attribution. Another table, centered with Cupid’s Triumph, also after Maestri, is illustrated in J. Hanisee Gabriel, Micromosaics: Private Collection, 2016, pp. 18-19.
Painstakingly and meticulously decorated by Antonio Aguatti, the most talented mosaicist of his time, this splendid micromosaic table is a celebration of the Grand Tour and, specifically, the rediscovery of the wonders at Pompeii. The inspiration for the mosaic palette – bold reds, blues and yellows set against a contrasting white ground – are drawn from the excavations of miraculously preserved frescoes at Herculaneum in 1738 and Pompeii in 1763. By the mid-18th century both Rome, and to a lesser extent Naples, had become essential destinations on the Grand Tour and its environs became a place in which collectors and intellectuals could admire and acquired ‘souvenirs’ of these new archaeological discoveries. In the late 18th and early 19th century, mosaicists found a cache of inspiration in Piranesi’s publications of views of Rome and in the vividly illustrated tomes compiled by the Niccolini brothers, all of which fueled the obsession with the ‘neo-classical’ into the 1860s.
The central scene, depicting the Phoenician princess’s abduction by Zeus, is based on Michelangelo Maestri’s (d. 1812) series of gouache drawings depicting putti charioteers and other mythological epics, sold The Di Portanova Collection, Christie's, New York, October 20, 2000, lot 22. Maestri’s own designs were based on frescoes by Giulio Romano (d. 1546) for the Villa Lante and, more importantly, the houses of Pompeii, which were later reproduced in the early 19th century by Tommaso Piroli and others (J. Hanisee Gabriel, Micromosaics: Private Collection, 2016, pp. 18). Maestri’s, and therefore Aguatti’s, retelling of Ovid’s tale in Metamorphoses depicts the unravelling events with exceptional artistic expression and uninhibited movement in the otherwise rigid medium of hardstone and mosaic. Here, with expert precision of his craft, Aguatti transforms glass tesserae to paint the scene in minute detail: ‘The fast receding sands/Her right hand grasped a horn/The other lent upon his back/Her fluttering tunic floated in the breeze’ (Ovid, Metamorphoses).
The table base, dating to the mid-19th century and paying homage to the Antique, is derived from the antheniennes of antiquity, notably those found in excavations at Pompeii, and were reproduced by the Neapolitan firm of Chiurazzi and Parisian bronziers Barbedienne, Charpentier and G. Servant. The Parisian bronziers exhibited a series of tripod pedestals and enameled objects of similar design in the 1862 International Exhibition (illustrated in J. Meyer, Great Exhibitions: 1851-1900, London, 2006, pp. 95 and 135) and the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876 (illustrated in Edward Strahan's Illustrated Catalogue of The Masterpieces of the International Exhibition 1876, Gebbie & Barrie, Philadelphia, 1876, p. 393).
ANTONIO AGUATTI:
A member of a dynasty of highly successful mosaicists, Antonio Aguatti (also known as Aquatti), to whom the present lot is attributed, was a limitless talent and virtuoso of mosaic application. The artist was very much at the forefront of technical advancement in the art form and was responsible for the increase in geometric shapes and fused colors of tesserae which allowed for ‘painterly’ expression, particularly in complex figural groups and arrangements of flora and fauna. The technique, on stunning display in the center of this top, is juxtaposed with the traditional use of cubic tesserae, known as smalti, effectively contrasting the artist’s boundless skill in old and new technique. By the 1760s this technique had been so perfected that it was possible to produce rods or threads of colored glass, called smalti filati, thin enough to be cut into the minute tesserae. These tiny individual tesserae in an almost infinite palette of as many as 28,000 colors allowed for mosaic ‘pictures’ rivaling the painted masterworks which they sought to copy. In 1810 his work was awarded a gold medal at the Capitoline exhibition of 'Roman Works of Art and Industry', held at the Campidoglio, and from 1832 until his death in 1846 he was professor of ‘mosaico in piccolo’ at the Vatican workshops.
Although also used by other mosaicisti, the thin micromosaic red-line border seen here appears to have been a motif particularly favored by Aguatti, as shown by its inclusion on a nearly identical top attributed to the artist at Sotheby’s, London, 4 July 2012, lot 37 and another, centered with Fidelity's Triumph, at Christie’s, London, 11 June 1998, lot 60. Both examples also repeat the ribbon-entwined border and the blue and lavender-hued scrolled motif set with emblems of the Four Seasons. The distinctive line also appears in two other tops by Aguatti, one in the Gilbert Collection, London (illustrated Hanisee Gabriel, The Gilbert Collection Micromosaics, 2000 p. 77, cat. 26), the other in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg (see E. M. Efimova, West European Mosaics of the 13-19th Centuries in the Collection of the Hermitage, Leningrad, 1968, no. 48). Michelangelo Maestri’s series of previously discussed gouache drawings served as constant inspiration for Auguatti’s work and further supports the present attribution. Another table, centered with Cupid’s Triumph, also after Maestri, is illustrated in J. Hanisee Gabriel, Micromosaics: Private Collection, 2016, pp. 18-19.