Renaissance & Rebirth

19th Century Roman Panel decorated with a micro mosaic attributed to Giacomo Raffaelli.  
This unique work of art is currently exposed in the Gismondi & Darmo gallery at 20, Rue Royale in Paris.  
In the center of the panel, on the intense black background of Belgian marble, a mosaic of an antique basin decorated with an egg-and-dart motif and placed on a rectangular panel is presented.  
Four doves quench their thirst there. Notice the intricate details in the water, especially where the beak of the blue dove is being reflected as it drinks from the basin.  
The mosaic is surrounded by a circle filled with various pieces of marble and hard stone: granite, porphyry, striated onyx, antique green, serpentine, Corsican green, Spanish brocatelle and banded agate... 

They are arranged as a spiral inside two circles of antique red marble.  
The mosaic takes up the theme of the famous Mosaic of the Doves from Hadrians villa, 2nd century AD and discovered in 1737, which was in turn probably a copy of Sosuss work (2nd century BC), Musei Capitolini, Rome.