Box, with micromosaic picture of dog

This circular granodiorite box is decorated with a micromosaic of a dog. It was made in Italy in the late 18th or early 19th century.

The small cube-shaped tesserae are laid in straight rows.

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

To search on related items, click any underlined text below.

• Online ID: 000-180-000-098-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.1872.25.9 A
• Date: Late 18th or early 19th century
  
• Material: Porphyritic lava, figure of a dog in mosaic
  Box cover
  
• Dimensions:
• What: Box cover
  
• Subject: Lava
  
• Who:
• Where: Italy, Rome
  
• Event:
• Description: Cover for a circular box of porphyritic lava, with the figure of a dog in mosaic: Italian, Rome
  
• References:
  • Evans, G. Souvenirs From Roman Times to the Present Day. Edinburgh: NMS Publishing Ltd, 1999, pp 26-7. 
• Translations:
• Related Records: