Tesserae are the individual pieces of a mosaic. In monumental mosaics (church walls, floor mosaics) they consist of stone cubes 5–15 mm along each edge; in the micromosaic they are considerably smaller - typically between 0.3 and 1 mm. They are cut from long glass rods (smalti filati, “drawn glass”) into thin platelets and set one by one into a black mortar ground with tweezers. On especially fine pieces the density exceeds 1,000 tesserae per square centimetre. The palette of the Vatican mosaic workshop comprised more than 28,000 different glass colours.

Which micromosaic pieces are particularly relevant in a mourning context?

Several types. The mourning brooch with a weeping-willow scene - an oval micromosaic panel (3–5 cm) shows the classic sentimental mourning scene with weeping willow, urn, gravestone and mourning figure (see Weeping Willow, Sentimental Jewellery). The mourning pendant with an inscription - “Ricordo” (“remembrance”) or “In Memoriam” as a mosaic inscription, combined with mourning symbolism. The pendant with an animal motif - above all doves (a symbol of peace and of the soul) or spaniels (fidelity), as keepsakes of deceased family members. The travel souvenir with a mourning character - micromosaic pieces from the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century tourist trade in Italy, referring to graves, mausolea or classical ruins that had been visited.

Is micromosaic still made today?

In a tiny niche. A few workshops in Rome continue the technique in the tradition of the Vatican mosaic workshop - Maurizio Bilancia, Romeo Soldi, and the Reverenda Fabbrica di San Pietro itself, which still produces liturgical micromosaics. In Venice a number of glass-art workshops maintain the tradition. Modern micromosaic jewellery is very expensive (production takes weeks to months) and is mostly made to order - including in a memorial context, with modern mourning motifs or with a portrait of the deceased worked from a photograph.

Micromosaic (Micromosaico)

The micromosaic is a mosaic technique perfected in Rome and Venice, in which tiny glass tesserae (often smaller than 1 mm) are assembled into detailed miniature pictures - in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries a high-grade material for mourning and souvenir pendants bearing neoclassical mourning scenes, weeping willows, urns or memorial inscriptions.

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