Brooch

Micromosaic was a technique of composing pictures through the proper arrangement of very small pieces of frosted glass in different colours cut from long smalti filati bars. This technique was elaborated in the last quarter of the 18th century in Rome. At the end of the 18th century and in the first half of the 19th century, pictures created in this manner became one of the most popular objects purchased by Europeans from outside the Alps making their Italian Grand Tour. These were both independent objects in the form of small pictures to be hung on walls, often with ancient motifs, but also parts of larger wholes, e.g., scenes embedded in boxes or – as in the case described below – adorning jewellery.

The small-sized golden round brooch was built around the central representation made using the micromosaic technique. The round scene fitted into the jewellery frame presents a sitting woman – a weaver with a spindle against the background of a slightly marked landscape. Shown from one side and presented in full shape, the woman is dressed in the clothes that suggest her South European descent – she is presumably a representative of the Italian people. The jewellery decorated with small pictures made using the micromosaic technique was fashionable in the 19th century as a consequence of the popularity of pictures created in this way. Motifs inspired by the social and natural landscape of Italy were often used. An example of such motif is this brooch, which forms a set along with a pair of earrings showing a standing woman and a standing man. As Małgorzata Zając writes (M. Zając, A set of jewellery with micromosaic, in: The Wilanów collection. Continuation, 1993-2011, Warszawa 2011): ‘Mosaicists creating works with such motifs often drew inspiration from the output of Bartolomeo Pinelli (1771–1835) – a Roman engraver and illustrator who issued a few groups of engravings presenting scenes from rural life and traditional Italian outfits in the years 1809–1823.’