Monumental Vase

myminifactory

This vase closely resembles a marble tazza created by Bartolini for the 6th Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire around 1820 (as previously noted, no. 10, fig. 1). Noted for his exquisite marble surfaces, Bartolini had trained with Barthelemy Corneille as an alabaster carver in Volterra, one of Tuscany's key centers for alabaster statuary production, back in 1795; it is therefore no surprise to find his signature on this magnificent vase. The decorative band encircling the urn's drum is taken from the monumental Pentelic marble Vaso Borghese discovered in Rome's Sallust gardens site in 1566 and owned by the Borghese family until Napoleon purchased it, installing it at the Louvre where it remains (inv. no. MR 985). The scene depicts a Dionysiac procession with the wine god thought to be the youth playing the aulos while draped in a panther skin, facing Ariadne whom he rescued on Naxos; however, this may represent a more general Bacchanale as subject interpretation has been debated. The Vaso Borghese was an esteemed antiquity at the time Bartolini worked, depicted by Hubert Robert around 1775, and it should be considered that its acquisition by Napoleon would have made it an apt subject choice for Bartolini since he had been commissioned to create numerous decorative urns for Napoleon's Elba residence (Caputo, as previously noted, p. 196, no. 10). The vase's lower portion is derived from designs by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778), whose so-called Piranesi Vase in the British Museum (inv. no. 1868,0512.1; incorporating antique elements) rests on a tripod arrangement of legs shaped like Atlas caryatids identical to the present figures. This blending of ancient and contemporary designs is not surprising given that Bartolini was creating his own models at the time and patrons may have specified certain arrangements when commissioning the piece.