An Italian micromosaic panel by the Vatican Mosaic Workshop, Rome, second half 19th century

The composition of the present finely executed micromosaic derives from the celebrated Hadrian's Villa marble mosaic dating from the 2nd century BC, rediscovered in 1737 and now in the Capitoline Museum, Rome. The Roman author and historian Pliny the Elder, in his Historia Naturalis described the panel as: "A dove drinking, and darkening the water with the shadow of her head, on the lip of the vessel are other doves pluming themselves." This mosaic is now commonly known as The Doves of Pliny and has been described by Alvar Gonzalez-Palacios as "perhaps the most loved mosaic of antiquity" (Gonzalez-Palacios, The Art of Mosaics: Selections from the Gilbert Collection (exh.cat.), 1977, p. 57). A circular panel of the same subject is in the Gilbert Collection, see J. H. Gabriel, The Gilbert Collection. Miscromosaics, 2000, pp. 32-33, fig. 5).

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the much celebrated Doves of Pliny was frequently repeated by mosaicists. The scene was replicated by makers of shell cameos and glass micromosaics for jewelry, box lids, plaques and tables.