Brooch
Firm of Castellani
Mosaic possibly by Luigi Podio
The pale yellow-gold mount is a subtle foil for the head of medusa, whose grisly coiffure crawling with snakes is no less exquisitely configured in blond hues of the tesserated glass known as micromosaic. Luigi Podio was the chief micromosaic specialist in the Roman firm of Fortunato Pio Castellani. Matching ancient imagery with technologies also re-created from classical antiquity, Castellani served an avid international clientele.