Arch of Janus Quadrifons, Rome, attributed to Giacomo Raffaelli, 1780.

Rectangular mosaic picture of the Arch of Janus Quadrifons showing a ruined four-sided arch inhabited by cows, horses and other domestic animals. On the left is a portion of another ruined structure with a peasant family seated at its base; in 20th-century giltwood frame

The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Provenance: Amadeo di Castro, Rome, 1969.

The discovery of the Doves of Pliny, an ancient mosaic described by Pliny the Younger as the ultimate example of illusionism in the field of mosaics, in 1737, might have triggered the interest among Roman mosaicists to create ever more painterly mosaics with ever smaller pieces. By 1800 such micromosaics became particularly fashionable as a technique that expressed neoclassical taste even in the very choice of its medium. Their portability made them the perfect souvenir to take back from Rome. While German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe famously complained about the multitude of the tiny cheap copies of Roman mosaics that were offered in the streets of Rome, this picture is evidence of the other end of the market: it is testimony to the innovation and craftsmanship that characterised the production and indeed evolution of micromosaics in the last quarter of the eighteenth century.

The mosaic of the Arch of Janus Quadrifons is very similar to another mosaic in the Gilbert Collection that depicts the Temple of the Sybil in Tivoli (LOAN:GILBERT.171-2008) and is generally associated with Giacomo Raffaelli. This Roman mosaicist and pietre dure artist is generally credited with the invention of a new technique which allowed the creation of mosaics with incredibly small pieces of glass in a seemingly infinite range of colours. Because of the similarity in style and size as well as a shared provenance the two pictures are considered a pair, but could also be evidence of a workshop production that was based on standardised dimensions.

Micromosaics have their roots in the larger mosaics of ancient Rome used to decorate their walls and floors. In fact particularly fine, moveable mosaics date back to hellenistic times when mosaics made of glass, stone and ceramics were laid on slabs of stone.
The first modern micromosaics were created in the late 18th century in response to a revived interest in antiquity, but it was not until Arthur Gilbert himself became interested in collecting them and invented the term 'micromosaics' that they became known as such. The tesserae are minute pieces cut from thin pieces of glass known as smalti filati, and some of the finest micomosaics can consist of as many as 5,000 tesserae per square inch (ca. 3 by 3cm).

This mosaic picture shows the Arch of Janus Quadrifons, one of the most celebrated ancient sights in Rome which attracted travellers from all over Europe as the single most important stop on their Grand Tour in the late eighteenth century. It is made with unusually small pieces, so-called tesserae, which consist of a glass-like material called smalti (enamel).

The picture dates from the last quarter of the eighteenth century and shows an early stage of the development of micromosaics. The mosaicist clearly had a limited range of colours at disposal and instead used the form and size of tesserae to create the composition. Motifs such as the black and white dog and the white horse with blue spots are wonderfully free in their allocation of colour, and in that sense anticipate an approach to composition that would only make its way into fine art with Pointillism and Divisionism around 1900.


Sir Arthur Gilbert and his wife Rosalinde formed one of the world's great decorative art collections, including silver, mosaics, enamelled portrait miniatures and gold boxes. Arthur Gilbert donated his extraordinary collection to Britain in 1996.

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