The President of the Governorate presents the new exhibition of minute mosaics in the Vatican Museums
A microcosm of beauty
The collection of minute mosaics or micromosaics of the Vatican Museums is among the most important in the world. A sign of artistic excellence in creating subjects and decorations of rare beauty and value from millimetric enamel tiles.
The Vatican collection can be admired in their new display cabinets, inside the museum’s Library Galleries, in the historic Sala Paolina II. The new exhibit was presented on Friday evening, May 16, by Sr. Raffaella Petrini, President of the Governorate of the Vatican City State, together with the Director of the Vatican Museums, Dr. Barbara Jatta, joined by Alvar González-Palacios, art historian and by Luca Pesante, head of the Decorative Arts Department, who was responsible for the arrangement of the new displays.
Among others present were Father Rocco Ronzani, Prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Archives, and Giuseppe Puglisi-Alibrandi, Secretary General of the Governorate.
The renewed and permanent itinerary, where the minute mosaics can be admired, allows them to be linked to their historical and environmental context, for which they were created. For this reason, the tiny works of art have been placed in the Library Gallery, in their original cabinets dating back to the 18th century.
Below is the inaugural speech of the President of the Governorate:
Dear friends present here (Father Rocco Ronzani, Prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Archives),
I am very pleased to inaugurate the new permanent display of the treasured collection of minute mosaics of the Vatican Museums. As was done in other Vatican Museum sectors, like the Sacred Museum, the Profane Museum and the Sala degli Indirizzi, the use of the original antique cabinets, with the interiors specially modified, were selected to display the micromosaics and here exhibited in one of the Pauline Rooms in the Library Galleries.
Modern mosaic work began to establish itself in Rome at the end of the 16th century, during the pontificate of Gregory XIII, with the establishment of a mosaic workshop dedicated to the creation and maintenance of the ornamental apparatus of St. Peter's Basilica.
To preserve the decorations of the Basilica, the original paintings were progressively replaced with more durable mosaic reproductions of the same. Thanks to increasingly refined workmanship and techniques, the minute glass-based enamel tiles achieved a compactness and yield visually comparable to painting.
In 1727, by order of Pope Benedict XIII, the workshop took the name of Vatican Mosaic Studio, directly under the authority of the Fabbrica di San Pietro. The art of minute mosaic or micromosaic flourished in this context in the late 18th century, to spread in a very short time throughout Europe. Intended as valuable personal objects like snuffboxes, brooches and jewels and inspired by the neoclassical taste for allegory and ancient classicism, it later expanded its repertoire with motifs such as flowers, animals and Roman ruins, inserted in evocative landscapes. The views of the Eternal City and the surrounding countryside then gave the mosaic an increasingly “Roman” identity.
In 1795 the Fabbrica di San Pietro made micromosaic production official, placing it alongside the “grand” mosaic works. Its international diffusion, encouraged by papal gifts to diplomats and sovereigns, made it a much sought-after souvenir for the more affluent travelers on the Grand Tour.
In 1804, on the occasion of Napoleon’s coronation in Paris, Pius VII brought with him a series of precious objects to give as gifts to the Sovereigns. The list, still preserved in the archives today, includes many boxes, bracelets and small paintings in minute mosaic, for the considerable value of 14,000 scudi.
This art, often defined as “minor”, was not always duly appreciated. The archaeologist and art historian Winckelmann had, in fact, come to affirm that the art of mosaic, which “offered floors to the ancients, arched the sky of their churches to the Christians”, had thus “debased itself to snuffboxes and bracelets”. In reality this type of material was an important tool for spreading knowledge of classical art and remains today a splendid testimony to the popular taste of the time.
I therefore thank the Director of the Museums, Dr. Barbara Jatta and her collaborators, in particular Dr. Luca Pesante, and all those who, in various capacities, contributed to the realization of this worthy project, testimony to the constant commitment to enhance and promote knowledge of the great and varied artistic heritage that we are all called to conserve, especially within the Vatican City State.
