Italy, Rome, circa 1880

The present panel depicts The Third Hour of The Day (Ora Terza di Giorno) from a series of the Hours of the Day and Night after Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (1483-1520), known as Raphael. These female Figures called Horae, floating against a black ground and representing the twelve hours of the day and night, have been traditionally been attributed to Raphael. Based on engravings of 1805-1806 by Fosseyeux, it has been suggested that frescos of these twelve figures were once ceiling decorations in the Sala Borgia of the Vatican and later covered with another fresco (Crowe and Cavalcaselle, 1885, pp. 549-550). The Horae were copied in coloured prints by late 18th century artists such as Michelangelo Maestri (1741-1812), whose work are a source of many of the ancient Roman images found in micromosaics. Similar style nymps were found in wall paintings at Herculaneum. A large panel depicting the same figure was sold recently at Sotheby's, New York, Classic Design, 7-17 October 2022, lot 115 (sold $30,240) and another, of similar size than the present, is illustrated in Jeanette Hanisee Gabriel, Micromosaics, Private Collections, 2016, p. 42, ill.9.