Micro-mosaics are made of thousands of tiny pieces of glass, invisible to the naked eye. Inspired by the discovery in Hadrian’s Villa in 1735 of what was then thought the finest mosaic ever made in ancient Rome, the mosaic artists of 18th-century Rome invented a method of making tiny mosaics in glass instead of stone.

This lecture traces the development of these astonishing feats of ingenuity from their neo-classical beginnings, to the romantic landscapes and naturalistic subjects of the 19th century. These micro-mosaics were highly prized in their day and brought back by visitors to Italy as treasured mementoes.