Ducks and Water Fowl; paper mosaic from the original in the Church of St. Maria in Trastevere, Rome painted by Caspar Purdon Clarke for the Victoria and Albert Museum; English; 1872

The image shows three ducks and two long-legged waterfowl. One is about to seize a snail; two other snails are crawling on a fish creel which is lying in the foreground. The image is a reproduction of a piece of antique Roman mosaic exhibited in the Gallery of the South-east Court of the museum at Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome. It is set into the last pier to the right of the nave of the church.

One of a series of paper mosaics reproducing mosaics from Ravenna and Rome.They were clearly highly valued at South Kensington in the late nineteenth century. This particular reproduction was exhibited in the Gallery of the South-East Court of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

From 'Christian Mosaic Pictures', a catalogue by Wilhelm Appel, 1877 - 'On the walls of the North Court of the South Kensington Museum there is exhibited a series of copies of ancient mosaic pictures [of which this is an example] which exist in churches at Rome and Ravenna. These copies are paper impressions, taken by a simple process, much in the same way as rubbings from brasses, and coloured by hand. They are therefore in effect almost facsimilies, reproducing the size and colour of the originals. The series includes examples of mosaic work, dating from the fourth century, when the walls and vaulted roofs of Christian basilicas first began to be covered with mosaics, down to the times of Raphael; and such visitors to the Museum as have not seen Italy, and perhaps only know the originals from small woodcut illustrations in popular Handbooks of the History of Art, may obtain a very good notion of them by examining these full-size reproductions.

We may add here that these coloured impressions of Christian mosaics were made by Mr Caspar Clarke, who was sent to Italy by the Science and Art Department, in 1872, after the late Director of the Museum and Lieutenant-Colonel Scott had inspected the original works.'

Caspar Clarke, who made these copies, was sent to Italy by the Sciences and Art Department, in 1872, after the late Director of the Museum and Lieutenant-Colonel Scott had inspected the original works.

This object is one of a series of coloured paper impressions of mosaics from Ravenna and Rome, reproducing the size and colour of the originals. They were made for the Museum in 1872 by Caspar Purdon Clarke, who later became the Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum from 1896 to1905 and Director of the Metropolitan Museum, New York from 1905-1911. The mosaics were exhibited on the walls of the North Court of the South Kensington Museum as part of a scheme of decoration. These copies are paper impressions, taken by a simple process, much in the same way as rubbings from brasses, and coloured by hand.

990-1873