Micromosaic, showing Piazza of St Peter's, Rome

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This late 19th century micromosaic shows the Piazza of St Peter's in Rome. It was made by Luigi Chiasserotti, a master who is recorded as being active from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries.

The micromosaic is inset in black Belgian marble and has a painted black frame. A label on the back gives the price as 200 lire.

Micromosaics are built up of hundreds or thousands of minute tessarae - cubes or chips - of coloured glass. They were developed by mosaicists employed by the Vatican Mosaic Workshop who began to fear for their jobs as orders for large-scale mosaics began to dry up in the 1750s. The credit for their invention is generally given to Giacomo Raffaelli (1753-1836), an employee of the Vatican Workshop. He exhibited his work in his private studio in the Piazza di Spagna in 1775. A later guidebook reveals that there were at least twenty mosaic workshops in the vicinity of the Piazza around 1873-4, all frequented by tourists.

Record details

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• Online ID: 000-180-000-039-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland Part 2
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  A.1995.497
• Date: Late 19th century
  
• Material: Black marble. Inscription: Rev Fabrica S. Pietro in Vaticano; Chiasserotti
  Plaque
  
• Dimensions:
• What: Plaque
  
• Subject:
• Who: Luigi Chiasserotti, Rome (Maker)
  
• Where: Italy, Rome
  Italy, Rome, Piazza of St Peter's
  
• Event:
• Description: Oval micromosaic plaque showing the Piazza of St Peter's in Rome, inset in black Belgian marble, with a painted black frame: Italian, Rome, by Luigi Chiasserotti, late 19th century
  
• References:
  • Domenico Petochi, I Mosaici Minuti Romani, Rome, 1981, p 52 
  • Evans, G. Souvenirs From Roman Times to the Present Day. Edinburgh: NMS Publishing Ltd, 1999, p 26. 
• Translations:
• Related Records: