PXL_20240329_224611213

Portrait of Camillo Rospigliosi
About 1630-40

Attributed to Giovanni Battista Calandra
Italian, Vercelli 1586-Rome 1644

Glass mosaic; gilt-wood frame

Camillo Rospigliosi, brother of Pope Clement IX, is depicted as knight commander of the Order of Santo Stefano, whose cross insignia he wears. Very small tiles are arranged to render his intense gaze, the wrinkles around his mouth, the gray shades of his hair, and even parts of the cross seen through the transparent collar with astonishing realism and pictorial effect. Mosaics, because they better preserve color over time, were appreciated as an enduring form of painting. Calandra was a master of this technique in the early 1600s in Rome.