Moglia Micromosaic Plaque of Beatrice Cenci, ca. 1870 | Best Moment | ANTIQUES ROADSHOW | PBS

it's a micro mosaic we don't know if it's from italy or russia it's by the artist molia but there's a father and a son so that's one of the things i'd like to find out my grandmother was an antique dealer and it used to be in her home as long as i can remember growing up it was in our home and i always loved it i was amazed that something made from stone or ceramic could actually look like a painting well as you said it is a micro mosaic the term micro mosaic was given in the 20th century to denote this type of artwork which is literally the introduction or the placement of these tiny little what we call tesserai into a ground so the tesserai actually you mentioned ceramic or stone mosaics are stone or stone often these are neither ceramic or stone these are actually glass ah they made them in tiny tiny tiny tiny sizes and so many different colors up to 15 000 different colors in glass would have been made to create micro mosaic artworks the technique really sort of came into its own in the 18th century and into the 19th century as increasing numbers of grand tourists visited italy and purchased things in micro mosaic that depicted some of the antiquities that they found there some of the archaeological sites the forums and peters basilica and great old master paintings such as this tell me a little bit if you know about the subject itself this is beatrice beatrice and her stepmother were abused by her father they murdered him they were convicted of murder and ultimately they were both i don't know if they were hung or how they were killed they were i believe they were beheaded okay beheaded yeah partly because she's so beautiful partly because she stood up for her rights she was both a heroine as well as a murderer she's a tragic hero absolutely yeah some people say that guido reni the artist of the original painting on which this is based right visited her the night before she was beheaded that's just hearsay though i believe but it's one of the stories unsubstantiated about how this painting was created she was executed in 1599 guido reni painted the original painting on which this is copied right in 1600. guido rennie was one of the great baroque painters he was from bologna and the painting itself because it captured her at such a tragic moment the night before she was going to be killed it inspired so many people especially in the 19th century authors poets and so forth this was made in the 19th century probably somewhere between 1850 and 1875. okay you wondered if the mosaic was done in italy or in russia it was almost certainly done in italy because the sun went to the russian court was my interest there were there was more than two moliers okay so you mentioned molia it is cyanolia here on the margin there are three of them luigi augusta there was uh domenico they all flourished in the 19th century when they were making these wonderful works of art i don't know for certain but i think it's by luigi molia the family of moliere who created this are considered some of the best the ammonia family exhibited in 1851 at the great exhibition it's a huge acclaim they created artworks in mosaic paintings after old masters such as this but they also not only made great pictures like this they made small bits of jewelry little plaques that would have been inserted into snuff boxes the art of micro mosaic on this sort of scale which is actually very very large for a mosaic is incredibly rare and incredibly exciting to find on antiques virtue i would think an insurance valuation of 85 000 cool would be a fair price excellent it's an absolutely splendid work of art i nearly leapt over my colleague to look at this you

Channel: Antiques Roadshow PBS

Views: 247,279

Rating: 4.9051962 out of 5

Keywords: antiques roadshow, antiques, vintage, antique roadshow, pbs, wgbh, david walker, appraisal, crocker art museum, sacramento, micromosaic, glass art, fine art, art history, mosiac, Guido Reni, Moglia, Beatrice Cenci

Id: _ddj68r_nOE

Length: 4min 19sec (259 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 21 2020