Souvenir
The Jeanette Hanisee Gabriel M.A. ’88 Memorial Fellowship in History of Art
A micromosaic is a miniature work of art created from tiny fragments of glass and enamel. Arranged by hand on a keepsake like a brooch or ring, the slivers trick the eye by appearing to be brushstrokes. Only when examined up close, tilted toward the light, is the craftsmanship apparent.
The Jeanette Hanisee Gabriel M.A. ’88 Memorial Fellowship will honor the life and legacy of an art historian and subject matter expert on micromosaics who passed away in 2025. The fellowship, established by her husband Angelo “Gino” Gabriel, will help graduate students who also specialize in European decorative arts.
“I made this gift to do what Jeanette would want me to do: to help people pursue their work. It continues her legacy as a great scholar and an incredibly warm, empathetic human being who always helped people when she could, throughout her life,” said Gino.
Jeanette earned her master’s degree in art history from UC Santa Barbara at age 48, where she studied European decorative arts under Dr. Alfred Moir.
“She did all this after she had already had a career in psychology and real estate. She was always looking for the next challenge. She really found it,” said Gino.
After graduating from UC Santa Barbara, Jeanette stewarded the Gilbert Collection of micromosaics and hardstones as the assistant curator of European decorative arts at LACMA. Gino worked for the museum as a librarian. When they first met, in the library, Gino felt like he had rekindled a long-lost friendship. They were married for 32 years.
In 1994, Jeanette became a curator to the British collector Arthur Gilbert, in charge of stewarding his entire art collection, which is now housed in perpetuity at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Gabriel authored two large volumes on her subject: “Micromosaics” (Gilbert Collection, 2000) and “Micromosaics: Private Collections,” assisted by Angelo Gabriel (McCarthy, 2016). Both are available to students and the public at the UCSB Library.
The fellowship’s first recipient didn’t know it yet, but he had already been guided by Jeanette’s work. A second-year doctoral student working toward a dissertation on 18th-century European jewelry, Jasper Martens’ fascination with micromosaics began while he worked with a jewelry dealer in Amsterdam.
One day, an early 19th-century Italian box caught his eye. Its lid bore a semiprecious stone micromosaic of a bird perched in a tree, tiny leaf in beak. While cataloguing such items, Jasper turned to Jeanette’s scholarship to place works within a broader artistic tradition — an unexpected connection to the fellowship he would receive years later.
“Financial resources are so important, especially early on in a Ph.D. The bulk of these objects are in Europe. Jewelry especially is so small, and a picture doesn’t show how pieces are meant to be worn. The fellowship gives me the ability to travel to see the objects in the context for which they’re created, the human body, which is incredibly valuable for my own thinking and understanding.”
“The Jeanette Hanisee Gabriel MA ’88 Memorial Fellowship has deepened my interest in jewels and jewelry. Her books are ones we constantly revisit to understand these objects today. To be able to build on her legacy is amazing,” said Jasper (pictured above).
“This is a wonderful gift for us that will transform the experience of one student each year. It allows for access and research possibilities in European decorative arts, a field that is underfunded in art history departments because there is a long history of its consideration as a minor art form,” said Jenni Sorkin, chair of the Department of the History of Art and Architecture.
Small, but not minor. French and Italian micromosaics were coveted luxury objects in the 18th and 19th centuries. While they also adorned cathedrals and furniture, they were most popular as portable mementos, fragments of beauty carried close to the body, meant to outlast the moment of their making. Like the art form she devoted her life to studying, Jeanette Hanisee Gabriel worked in miniature, persistent and precise. Tilted toward the light, the full craftsmanship of a life is revealed. Through this fellowship, the memory of Jeanette will endure.
Published in July 2026
I made this gift to do what Jeanette would want me to do: to help people pursue their work. It continues her legacy as a great scholar and an incredibly warm, empathetic human being who always helped people when she could, throughout her life.
Angelo “Gino” Gabriel on his late wife, pictured
