LOT 0173

Byzantine Cosmatesque Mosaic Panel

11TH-13TH CENTURY A.D.

15 1/4 in. (1.06 kg, 38.5 cm wide (1.4 kg total including stand)).

Recalling workmanship similar to that found in the floor of the Sistine Chapel and other important Roman churches; comprising a stepped rectangular panel with white marble border, square blocks with cross fourchée motifs on porphyry and other fields; mounted on a custom-made stand.

French gallery, Paris, 1990s.
From a family collection, London, UK.

See Boito, C., Architettura Cosmatesca, Torino, 1860; Hutton, E., The Cosmati, The Roman Marble Workers of the XIIth and XIIIth Centuries, London, 1950; Tosca, P., Storia dell’Arte Italiana, il medioevo, vol. III, Torino, 1965; Matthiae, G., 'Componenti del gusto decorativo cosmatesco,' in Rivista dell'Istituto Nazionale di Archeologia e Storia dell'Arte, vol. I, 1952, pp.249-281; Cigola, M., 'Mosaici pavimentali cosmateschi. Segni, disegni e simboli,' in Palladio, Nuova serie, anno VI n. 11, giugno 1993, pp.101-110; the composition of the mosaic recalls the floors of the most important churches of Rome, like the floor of the Sistine Chapel (realised probably in the 14th century for the previous building or Cappella Maggiore), or that of Santa Maria Maggiore (1145-1153 AD), San Giovanni in Laterano (14th century AD), Saint Clement (1099-1120 AD), Santi Quattro Coronati (13th century AD), Santa Croce in Gerusalemme (12th century AD) and many others.

The Cosmatesque style was a characteristic type of ornamentation of Eastern Roman origin (opus alexandrinum) used by the Roman marble makers of the 12th and 13th centuries AD. It embellishes floors, ciboriums and cloisters of churches by means of polychrome marble inlays of varied and imaginative geometric shapes. The wider use of this decoration began in the 12th century, at which time techniques were improved: the Cosmati floors were made with pieces of stone cut in various shapes and sizes, a property quite different from the mosaics in opus tessellatum, in which the motifs were made from small units all having the same size and shape, or from the opus sectile, intended to create representations with pieces of multicoloured marble cut out and arranged for this purpose. The stones used by Cosmati artists were often material salvaged from the ruins of ancient Roman buildings.