Floor mosaic composition
Ignazio Stern; Enrico Ennuo1751 - 1752
Museu de São Roque
Lisboa, Portugal
The mosaic floor panel represents an oval armillary sphere, surrounded by garlands of flowers, based on drawings made by Ignazio Stern, a German painter. The paving work began with the oval motif containing the armillary sphere and the strip of winding acanthus. Ignazio Stern was later commissioned to produce the garland of flowers, on 15th July 1745. This was not the small model designed originally by Luigi Vanvitelli, but a larger one with a blue background for which Stern received an extra 20 scudi. The painter received a total of 25 scudi.
The group of mosaicists working on the pavement was made up of Guglielmo Paleat, Nicola Onofri and Giuseppe Ottaviani, with Enrico Enuo in charge and responsible for distributing wages
- Title: Floor mosaic composition
- Creator Lifespan: Born in the first half of the 18th century
- Creator Nationality: German; italian
- Creator Gender: Male; male
- Date: 1751 - 1752
- Provenance: Igreja de São Roque/Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa
- Type: Mosaics
- Rights: Museu de São Roque/Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa
- External Link: Museu de São Roque/Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa
- Medium: Coloured glass mosaics (tesselae)
- Mosaicist drawer; Mosaicist artisan: Ignazio Stern; Enrico Ennuo
- Manufactured: Rome, Italy
- Commission: Considered to be a masterpiece unique in European art, the Chapel of Saint John the Baptism was ordered from Rome in 1742 by King John V (ruled 1706-50). It was constructed between 1742 and 1752, when it was officially inaugurated in Lisbon. The Portuguese court oversaw the construction, designed and built in Italy, under the artistic direction of the architects Luigi Vanvitelli (1700–73) and Niccolo Salvi (1697–1751).Luigi Vanvitelli was forced to change its original design to comply with the alterations sent to Italy by the architect João Frederico Ludovice (1673-1752). Hundreds of different artists and craftsmen worked on it. Consecrated by Pope Benedict XIV on 15 December 1744, in the Church of St. Anthony of the Portuguese (Sant'Antonio dei Portoghesi) in Rome, it was sufficiently finished that the Pope could say mass in it on 6 May 1747. Later, the chapel was dismantled, transported to Lisbon in three ships, and reassembled in São Roque two years later.
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