Description:

A fine Italian micromosaic table top
probably the workshop of Cesare Roccheggiani, Rome
fourth quarter 19th century

Centrally depicting St. Peter's Square, surrounded by depictions of Roman landmarks including the Pantheon; the Arch of Titus; the Campidoglio; the Forum; the Colosseum; the Temple of Hercules Victor; Castel Sant'Angelo and the Tomb of Cecilia Metalla.

  • Provenance:
    Property from a Private Chicago Collection.

    Footnote:
    Cesare Roccheggiani (fl. 1860) hailed from a line of renowned Vatican mosaicists including Antonio Roccheggiani, who participated in the International Exhibitions of London in 1851 and Paris in 1855 and Lorenzo and Nicola Roccheggiani. He was believed to have been apprenticed to maestro Michaelangelo Barberi (1787-1867) and refined his composition skill by copying many of Barberi's designs. Cesare Roccheggiani became the leading supplier of micromosaic works to American and North European visitors on the Grand Tour.

    The attribution of this table top to the Roccheggiani workshop can be made based not only on the subject matter but the refined execution and his signature detail of the trompe l'oeil Greek key border within two malachite bands. However, Roccheggiani's Greek key borders were typically vibrantly colored, leaving open the possibility that this tabletop came from Barberi's atelier (see Jeanette Hanisee Gabriel, Micromosaics: Private Collections, 2016, p. 312). A smaller table top, decorated with the same scenes and displaying the same characteristic border is recorded in a private collection (see Grieco & Gambino, Roman mosaic, l'arte del micromosaico, fra 700 e 800, 2001, p. 184). A top of slightly larger size centered by a scene of Romulus and Remus and the same surrounding scenes, bearing the label of Roccheggiani, was sold Christie's New York, 28 April-7 May 2020, lot 157. A nearly identical example of slightly larger diameter was sold in these Rooms, 26 July 2020, lot 72.

    We would like to thank Jeanette Hanisee Gabriel for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.
  • Dimensions: diameter 22 1/4in (56.5cm)
  • Condition: General marks, scratches, rubbing, dirt accumulation and wear commensurate with age and use. Edges smooth. With scattered tight cracks and small losses. Small scattered areas of infill. With remnants of two sections of threading to underside of top for previously securing to a base.

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