A RARE ITALIAN MOSAIC PANEL IN THE MANNER OF FILIPPO COCCHI (ITALIAN 1762-1818)

A RARE ITALIAN MOSAIC PANEL IN THE MANNER OF FILIPPO COCCHI (ITALIAN 1762-1818)
VATICAN MOSAIC WORKSHOP, ROME, LATE 18TH CENTURY

the central oval panel depicting a bacchante holding grapes in her left hand with a vine leaf in her hair, with Siena marble borders and with sixteen rondels of differing micromosaic butterflies in the manner of Giacomo Raffaelli, all inset into black marble
67.6m high, 77.2cm wide, 3.4cm deep

Catalogue Note

The Vatican Mosaic Workshop was established for the embellishment of St. Peter’s, creating altarpieces and other magnificent mosaics. The mosaicists copied famous Old Master paintings by well-known Baroque artists such as the likes of Carracci, Domenichino, Guido Reni and Poussin. Hardstone and coloured glass tesserae were carefully selected and arranged to give the impression of the chiaroscuro effects of the original paintings, in Vasari’s words to ‘appear at a distance as genuine and beautiful pictures.’

Rome soon became renowned for the technique and mosaics became the diplomatic gifts of the Papacy. Demand grew from royal travellers, connoisseurs and collectors visiting Rome on the Grand Tour, to quench this thirst artisans started to produce mosaici in piccolo or micromosaics. Initially the subject matter was religious but later in the 18^th century classical subjects became popular like the Bacchante portrait in the present lot. A Bacchante or Maenad is a devotee of Bacchus, the god of wine and a symbol of revelry and festivity. The source for the present lot remains elusive but portraits of Bacchantes were popular in the 18^th century with similar works painted by Angelica Kauffman and Joshua Reynolds.

For a micromosaic plaque of the Muse Euterpe by Filippo Cocchi, dated ‘1785’ see Carlo Bertelli, Mosaics, p.72.