Monumental Vase

myminifactory

The distinguished Italian Neoclassical sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini kickstarted his career by crafting high-quality decorative urns and tazzi for visiting grand tourists. Falletti, Bietoletti, and Caputo published a series of nineteen sketches featuring designs for such vases (op. cit., pp. 196-199, no. 10). One of these is nearly identical to a marble tazza executed by Bartolini for the 6th Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire around 1820 (op. cit., no. 10, fig. 1). Bartolini is renowned for his marbles with exquisite surfaces, but he trained as an alabaster carver with Barthelemy Corneille in Volterra in 1795; it's consequently not surprising to find his signature on the present magnificent vase. The frieze running around the drum of the urn is taken from the monumental pentelic marble Vaso Borghese, which was discovered in 1566 on the site of the gardens of Sallust in Rome and acquired by the Borghese family until it was purchased by Napoleon and installed in the Louvre, where it remains (inv. no. MR 985). The frieze represents a Dionysiac procession, with the wine god thought to be the youth playing the aulos, draped in a panther skin and facing Ariadne, who he rescued on Naxos. It may, however, represent a more generic Bacchanale, as the subject has been a matter of debate. The Vaso Borghese was a celebrated antiquity at the time Bartolini was working, it was depicted by Hubert Robert around 1775, and its acquisition by Napoleon would have made it an appropriate subject choice for Bartolini, since he was commissioned to produce numerous decorative urns for Napoleon's residence on Elba (Caputo, op. cit., p. 196, no. 10). The lower half of the vase is taken from the designs of Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778), whose so-called Piranesi Vase in the British Museum (inv. no. 1868,0512.1; which incorporates antique elements) features a tripod arrangement of legs in the form of Atlas caryatids, identical to the present figures. This mixing of antique and contemporary designs is not surprising given that Bartolini was creating his own models at that time, and patrons may have specified certain arrangements at the time of commission. Part of the Sotheby's Old Master Sculpture & Works of Art Sale on July 6th, 2017, held at New Bond Street in London. Lot 154, MONUMENTAL VASE ATTRIBUTED TO LORENZO BARTOLINI, is predicted to sell for £30,000-50,000.