| Description
A rectangular micromosaic
depicting a tigress, her head to the viewer's left, reclining on
a rocky ledge in front of a cave entrance. A few wisps of vegetation
hang above the cave and below the ledge. The animal's eyes are fixed
towards the area outside the left of the picture field. The picture
is signed in the lower-left corner: DECIO PODIO VENEZIA.
Decio Podio was probably either the son
or brother of Enrico Podio, who was Artistic Director of the Salviati
mosaics firm in Venice and also Head Mosaicist of St Mark's Basilica.
Commentary
The composition is based on the painting 'Tigress Lying Below Rocks'
by George Stubbs (1724-1806) of which three versions are know. The
subject of the painting was a tiger given to George Spencer, fourth
Duke of Marlborough by Lord Clive, Governor of Bengal. The animal
joined the Duke’s menagerie at Blenheim in 1762 where it was
discovered to be, in fact, a tigress. Stubb’s painting, still
at Blenheim Palace today, was commissioned by the fourth Duke around
1763-8, and exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1769 with the
title ‘A Tyger’.
Stubb’s painting was engraved by
John Dixon and published in 1772 as ‘A Tigress’. Another
mezzotint was completed in 1798 by John Murphy after the Marlborough
painting. One of these printed engravings, which were available
to the public, probably served a s the model for the Venetian mosaicist
who executed the Gilbert ‘Tigress’.
The species of the Indian or Bengal tigress
is panther regalis, or Royal tiger, characterised by its short fur
and widely spaced stripes. Its gender is indicated by a small round
head, short nose and lack of a ruff. The Gilbert ‘Tigress’
is a more slender version than that of Stubbs’, and in its
proportions, truer to life. The artist has rendered it in micromosaic
with great naturalism, conveying the power, dignity and beauty of
the beast.
Glossaries
micromosaics - made from
thousands of tiny coloured enamel rods, painstakingly assembled
and secured with a slow drying adhesive
back to the
collection
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the
Gilbert silver