Among the most singular forms of urban representation are those which, since the end of XVIII Century, began to employ the technique of the so-called micromosaic (or mosaic minute) for the production of jewelry and precious articles with the purpose of spreading throughout Europe the image of monuments and cities of Italy such as destinations of the Grand Tour. This technique had obtained the citizenship in the Vatican by the establishment in 1587 of the mosaic school of the Reverenda Fabbrica di San Pietro, with the task of decorating the interior of the basilica and replaying in a non-perishable form the pictorial heritage. The objective of imitating painting had requested a specific technical research, aimed at obtaining an almost infinite chromatic range of enamels, able to simulate the results of the chromatic modulation obtained by brush. Despite this great technical skill, at the end of XVIII Century the completion of the works of decoration and reproduction threatened to leave unemployed the mosaicists of the school, which had been transformed in the institution of the Studio del Mosaico Vaticano. It happened, however, that two of the most skilled and renowned of them, Cesare Aguatti and Giacomo Raffaelli, devised the so-called technique of "spun enamel", consisting in re-melting and spinning of the vitreous enamel surface of the mosaic tiles, so as to obtain thin bars (1 millimeter in cross section). These could be segmented into tiles to compose tiny mosaics for inserting in wide range of items to serve as Italienreise souvenir: furnishings, such as coffee tables or fireplace coatings, or much smaller articles, such as snuff-boxes or jewelry. The ichonografic themes, which initially consisted mainly of classical antiquities, have gradually expanded to include depictions of the most popular urban places of Rome and then, since XIX Century, even of other cities - Milan, Naples, Venice – where, in the Napoleon’s Era, they tried to export the culture and know-how of the Roman Studio. Through time the iconographic repertoire has expanded in parallel with the chromatic experimentation, in which a milestone was the invention, about 1850, of the manufacturing technique of malmischiati, bars in which the color tones are variously shaded. In fact, if the production during whole the Eighteenth-Nineteenth-Centuries of engravings and urban views provided to mosacists a rich iconographic base for inspiration, we must not believe that this was a mere work of reproduction and virtuosity of craftsmanship, because the transition from the incision (usually in black and white) to the composition mosaic, introduces the color (which, in the extremely small size of the final image, is fully in charge of the perspective composition) an absolutely original factor, whose experimentation has allowed the Vatican Studio - today still hub of the production, preservation and study of the mosaic minute -getting to develop a range of 22000 different chromatic gradations.

Urban representation and chromatic research in the tradition of Vatican micromosaics

IAROSSI, MARIA POMPEIANA
2015-01-01

Abstract

Among the most singular forms of urban representation are those which, since the end of XVIII Century, began to employ the technique of the so-called micromosaic (or mosaic minute) for the production of jewelry and precious articles with the purpose of spreading throughout Europe the image of monuments and cities of Italy such as destinations of the Grand Tour. This technique had obtained the citizenship in the Vatican by the establishment in 1587 of the mosaic school of the Reverenda Fabbrica di San Pietro, with the task of decorating the interior of the basilica and replaying in a non-perishable form the pictorial heritage. The objective of imitating painting had requested a specific technical research, aimed at obtaining an almost infinite chromatic range of enamels, able to simulate the results of the chromatic modulation obtained by brush. Despite this great technical skill, at the end of XVIII Century the completion of the works of decoration and reproduction threatened to leave unemployed the mosaicists of the school, which had been transformed in the institution of the Studio del Mosaico Vaticano. It happened, however, that two of the most skilled and renowned of them, Cesare Aguatti and Giacomo Raffaelli, devised the so-called technique of "spun enamel", consisting in re-melting and spinning of the vitreous enamel surface of the mosaic tiles, so as to obtain thin bars (1 millimeter in cross section). These could be segmented into tiles to compose tiny mosaics for inserting in wide range of items to serve as Italienreise souvenir: furnishings, such as coffee tables or fireplace coatings, or much smaller articles, such as snuff-boxes or jewelry. The ichonografic themes, which initially consisted mainly of classical antiquities, have gradually expanded to include depictions of the most popular urban places of Rome and then, since XIX Century, even of other cities - Milan, Naples, Venice – where, in the Napoleon’s Era, they tried to export the culture and know-how of the Roman Studio. Through time the iconographic repertoire has expanded in parallel with the chromatic experimentation, in which a milestone was the invention, about 1850, of the manufacturing technique of malmischiati, bars in which the color tones are variously shaded. In fact, if the production during whole the Eighteenth-Nineteenth-Centuries of engravings and urban views provided to mosacists a rich iconographic base for inspiration, we must not believe that this was a mere work of reproduction and virtuosity of craftsmanship, because the transition from the incision (usually in black and white) to the composition mosaic, introduces the color (which, in the extremely small size of the final image, is fully in charge of the perspective composition) an absolutely original factor, whose experimentation has allowed the Vatican Studio - today still hub of the production, preservation and study of the mosaic minute -getting to develop a range of 22000 different chromatic gradations.
2015
Colour and Colorimetry. Multidisciplinary contributions.
978-88-99513-01-6
Rappresentazione urbana; micromosaico; colore
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
Colour_and_Colorimetry_VOLXIB_ENG_Iarossi-2.pdf

Accesso riservato

Descrizione: Articolo principale
: Publisher’s version
Dimensione 1.73 MB
Formato Adobe PDF
1.73 MB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11311/978734
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact