{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O157705"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O157705/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CC6197/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CC6197/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2009CC6197","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CC6194","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CC6191","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JL5335","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JL5337","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JL5338","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JL5339","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JL5340","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JL5341","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JL5342","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JL5343","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JL5344","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O157705/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O157705","accessionNumber":"LOAN:GILBERT.109:1, 2-2008","objectType":"Specimen block","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This hardstone block was made to display a group of early micromosaics. It is an unusual example of the Italian use of malachite, which was rarely found outside Russia, its country of origin, before the early 19th century. The micromosaics may derive from Greek and Roman mythology, in which the butterfly symbolised the soul leaving the body at the moment of death.\r\n\r\nSir 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.","physicalDescription":"A rectilinear block faced in malachite and standing on a square lapis lazuli plinth on a further square of black marble set within a gilt bronze frame on four pad feet. The top of the malachite block is inset with four micromosaic roundels with white ground, three depicting butterflies with their antennae facing centre, the fourth a bird on a branch. Each of the four sides is also set with a rectangular micromosaic of a butterfly perched on a branch on white ground, within a border of red marble.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Raffaelli, Giacomo","id":"A22473"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"AAT251917"},"note":"probably"}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"mosaic glass","id":"AAT260731"},{"text":"gilt bronze","id":"x35084"},{"text":"malachite","id":"AAT11123"},{"text":"marble","id":"AAT11443"},{"text":"lapis lazuli","id":"AAT11122"}],"techniques":[{"text":"micromosaic","id":"x42499"},{"text":"gilding","id":"AAT53789"},{"text":"piercing","id":"AAT231153"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Micromosaic, malachite, lapis lazuli, marble and pierced gilt bronze","categories":[{"text":"Mosaic","id":"THES253095"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2009CC6197","2009CC6194","2009CC6191","2016JL5335","2016JL5337","2016JL5338","2016JL5339","2016JL5340","2016JL5341","2016JL5342","2016JL5343","2016JL5344"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"73","id":"THES49721"},"free":"","case":"CA002","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"73","id":"THES49721"},"free":"","case":"CA002","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"specimen block","id":""}],[{"text":"base","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"No","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Rome","id":"x29106"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1800","earliest":"1795-01-01","latest":"1804-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"30","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"25.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"25.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"","value":"","unit":"","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"","value":"","unit":"","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Weight","value":"24.3","unit":"kg","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"24.7.23","earliest":"2023-07-24","latest":"2023-07-24"},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Measured 25/04/24 IW \r\nWeight updated 24.7.23","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Provenance: Frederick P. Victoria, New York, 1971.\n\nHistorical significance: In Greek and Roman mythology, the butterfly symbolised the soul leaving the body at death. In classical art, in particular frescos in Pompei, Psyche is depicted as a winged girl resembling a butterfly. In Christian art, the life-cycle of the butterfly from caterpillar to chrysalis to insect, represents life, death and resurrection.","historicalContext":"The use of malachite in Rome in about 1800 is very rare. Malachite was quarried in Russia and was rarely used in other countries before the French Empire period (1804-15). Giacomo Raffaelli's work was evidently valued in Russia as he was asked by the Tsar to found a Russian school of mosaics, and although he declined to do so, was given the title of 'Counsellor to the Emperor of Russia' after Napoleon's fall. The micromosaics may have been set in a malachite block in Russia.\r\n\r\nThere is a similar block of lapis lazuli set with a micromosaic in a private Roman collection.","briefDescription":"Micromosaic, malachite, lapis lazuli, marble and pierced gilt bronze, Rome, ca.1800, Giacomo Rafaelli.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Gonzalez-Palacios, Alvar and Steffi Röttgen with essays by Steffi Röttgen, Claudia Przyborowski; essays and new catalogue material translated by Alla Theodora Hall. <u>The Art of Mosaics: Selections from the Gilbert Collection</u>. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1982. 224 p., ill. Cat. no. 25. ISBN 0875871097."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Gonzalez-Palacios, Alvar. <u>The Art of Mosaics: Selections from the Gilbert Collection</u>, Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1977. 143 p., ill. Cat. no. 25. ISBN: 0875870805"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Gabriel, Jeanette Hanisee with contributions by Anna Maria Massinelli and essays by Judy Rudoe and Massimo Alfieri. <u>Micromosaics: The Gilbert Collection</u>. London: Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd. in association with The Gilbert Collection, 2000. 310 p., ill. Cat. no. 9, pp. 60-61. ISBN 0856675113."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"birds","id":"x35043"},{"text":"butterflies","id":"x30135"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"2. Specimen block with butterflies\r\n1790–1820\r\n\nThe use of vibrant, green malachite was rarely seen outside of Russia where it was mined before 1800. Raffaelli, however, occasionally worked with malachite and is also recorded to have worked for the Tsar Nicholas I of Russia (1796-1855). This specimen block, set with high-quality mosaics, was an exceptional commission, but we have no documents that show who commissioned it.\n\r\nMosaics: Rome, Italy; possibly Giacomo Raffaelli (1753–1836). Hardstone block: Russia\r\nGlass micromosaic, malachite, lapis lazuli, marble and gilded bronze\r\nMuseum no. Loan:Gilbert.109:1, 2-2008","date":{"text":"2024","earliest":"2024-01-01","latest":"2024-12-31"}},{"text":"9. Specimen block with butterflies\r\n1790–1820\r\n\r\nMosaics: Rome, Italy; possibly Giacomo Raffaelli (1753–1836). Hardstone block: Russia\r\nGlass micromosaic, malachite, lapis lazuli, marble and gilded bronze\r\nMuseum no. Loan:Gilbert.109:1, 2-2008","date":{"text":"16/11/2016","earliest":"2016-11-16","latest":"2016-11-16"}},{"text":"Specimen block with butterfly mosaics\r\nAbout 1800\r\n\r\nThis hardstone block was made to display a group of\r\nearly micromosaics. It is an unusual example of the\r\nItalian use of malachite, which was rarely found outside\r\nRussia, its country of origin, before the early 19th\r\ncentury. The micromosaics may derive from Greek and\r\nRoman mythology, in which the butterfly symbolised\r\nthe soul leaving the body at the moment of death.\r\n\r\nRome, Italy; probably Giacomo Raffaelli (1753–1836)\r\nGlass micromosaic, malachite, lapis lazuli,\r\nmarble and gilded bronze\r\nMuseum no. Loan:Gilbert.109:1, 2-2008","date":{"text":"2009","earliest":"2009-01-01","latest":"2009-12-31"}}],"partNumbers":["LOAN:GILBERT.109:1-2008","LOAN:GILBERT.109:2-2008"],"accessionNumberNum":"109","accessionNumberPrefix":"LOAN:GILBERT","accessionYear":2008,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Arthur Gilbert Number","id":"THES50383"},"number":"MM 69"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","specimen block","base"],"assets":["2026PL9737","2026PL9736"],"recordModificationDate":"2026-04-01","recordCreationDate":"2008-06-26","availableToBook":false}}