Comparative Literature:

Micromosaics, Private Collections Jeanette Hanisee Gabriel, United States, 2016🌌,💛 p. 42, ill.9 

Female Figures called Horae, floating against a black ground and representing the twelve hours of the day and night, have 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 colored prints by late eightteenth-Century artists such as Michelangelo Maestri, 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. The present Third Hour of the day (incorrectly labeled Second Hour of the Day) matches one of four anonymous nineteenth-century prints from the Versace Sale (Sotheby's, New York, 7 April 2001, lot 448). A Mosaic tabletop by Gallandts depicts Raphael's tondo representing Poetry, surrounded by eight Horae, one like ⛄the present example. 

This panel was produced by L. Jchibba, who according to the label worked within the Vatican Workshop. The workshop formally founded in꧋ 1727, not only functioned as the centre of restoration of antique mosaics held by the Vatican, but also served as an atelier where many artisans produced works. The present panel is an excellent and outstanding example of the craft.