Morosini mosaic in Talygarn House

A fifty square foot mosaic was created by Salviati for the 1881 Italian Exposition in Milan based on an original 1879 design by artist Giacomo Favretto. It's called "Venice Presenting the Baton of Command to Francesco Morosini".

Morosini was a 17th century Venetian soldier and sailor. The composition includes Morosini himself, Venetia as a beautiful woman, Kleio the muse of history, and St. Mark's lion. More than 7,000 color variations in tesserae were used with the noticeable exception of Salviati's signature gold.


In 1885, George Thomas Clark - a friend of Sir Austen Henry Layard - purchased the mosaic from the Venice and Murano Glass and Mosaic Company for 250 British Pounds and had it installed in the Hall of Talygarn House in Wales. Incidentally, Clark also gifted a mosaic reredos of the Last Supper by Salviati to the Charterhouse School in Godalming.

The mosaic - seen above in Talygarn House - was removed in the 1920s when the house became a convalescent home for miners. At one point, it had been left in a field on the property and as of 2008, there was the intent to donate it to the National Museum of Wales.

 Favretto's 1879 painting can be found in Venice's Museo d'Arte Moderna, ca'Pesaro.

Sources:
Barr, Sheldon. Venetian Glass Mosaics: 1860-1917. London: Antique Collectors' Club, 2008. 60-63.
ebay
Plant, Margaret. Venice: Fragile City 1797-1997. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. 175.

Salviati Mosaic Series of Tapestries

Around 1881, several designs were submitted to Salviati by Herbert A. Bone. These are reminiscent of the panels in the Kensington Valhalla, but they were never made into mosaics. However, six were commissioned by Anthony Gibbs to be manufactured into wool and silk tapestries measuring 3'6" by 1'3" by the Royal Windsor Tapestry company.

Three of the tapestries are part of the UK National Trust's collection still located at the Gibbs' estate at Tyntesfield. These include Savonarola, Saint Agnes, and Vittoria Colonna and they were originally pinned to a wooden screen in the chapel that's still decorated with Salviati mosaics.
 

 
Another unused mosaic design was the full-body portrait of Richard the Lionhearted. This tapestry was part of a public auction in late 2013.

An example of the tapestry featuring Cimabue is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, while the current location of the one depicting Joan of Arc is unknown.



Sources:
The Royal Windsor Forum
The National Trust
V&A Collections

St. Andrew's Church, Biggleswade

This church contains some 13th and 14th century elements, but it has been remodeled and added to extensively over the centuries.

R.J. Withers designed the east-end stone reredos in 1877 and it was decorated with Venetian mosaics by Salviati in 1881.

Sources:
National Heritage
Rodney Burton on Wikimedia Commons
Derek Jones' flickr Photostream
Colin Hinson on Genuki

Leighton House, Kensington

This former home of the painter Frederic, Lord Leighton has operated as a museum since 1929. George Aitchison designed the first part of the classical style building in 1864. Construction began two years later and lasted for thirty years.

A major extension in 1877-79 added an Arab Hall, which contains many objects from Leighton's extensive travels, as well as a mosaic frieze designed by Walter Crane. Crane based the designs of the hall on those of the palace at La Zisa in Palermo, Italy.

Salviati executed the mythological-themed gold mosaic work around 1881.

Salviati also made the mosaic portrait of Pisano in the Kensington Valhalla that was based upon an original painting by Leighton sometime after 1866.

Sources:
Wikipedia
Bridgemanart
Leighton House Museum
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Telegraph.co.uk
Guardian.co.uk
Jeanette Johansson's flickr Photostream

Museum of Decorative Arts, Berlin

Now known as the Martin-Gropius-Bau, this exhibition space was built in 1877-81 by Martin Gropius and Heino Schmieden to originally house the Berlin Museum of Decorative Arts.

The building was damaged in World War II, but it was rebuilt in the 1960s.

The spaces between the windows on the top floor are adorned with Salviati mosaic from 1879-81. The allegorical figures were designed by Ernst Ewald and total 650 square feet.

 

 

Sources:
Barr, Sheldon. Venetian Glass Mosaics: 1860-1917. London: Antique Collectors' Club, 2008. 127.
Wikipedia
Berlin.de
Cambridge 2000
Artnet.de