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Fragment of marble vase: Dionysiac symbols
Roman
Early Imperial Period
1st century A.D.
Medium/Technique
Marble from Carrara in northwest Italy
Dimensions
Height x width: 16.5 x 18.5 cm (6 1/2 x 7 5/16 in.)
Credit Line
Henry Lillie Pierce Fund
Accession Number01.8215
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAncient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsSculpture
Catalogue Raisonné
Sculpture in Stone (MFA), no. 313.
DescriptionThe rim is preserved above; the other edges are broken irregularly. The surfaces are clean and fresh.
There is a grapevine above, a satyr's head and a thyrsos fill the lower right, and a pedum appears at the left, between where the handles once were. The bases of these vine-stem handles are visible above and below the remains of the pedum. The lip is enriched with a delicate fillet and head, leading to a series of flat ovolos or eggs and darts. The quality of the carving is dry but excellent, giving every indication of paralleling the best decorative work from Hadrian's villa at Tivoli. In a garden in the sunlight the whole vase must have presented a striking effect, for the marble is almost translucent.
This vase, or the bowl from which the fragment comes, is a reduced version of the famous Warwick vase, said to have come from Villa Adriana and in reality cleverly composed in the Piranesi style from a few ancient fragments.
Scientific Analysis:
Harvard Lab No. HI717: Isotope ratios - delta13C +2.74 / delta18O -2.86, Attribution - Carrara, Justification - White, fine grained marble.
There is a grapevine above, a satyr's head and a thyrsos fill the lower right, and a pedum appears at the left, between where the handles once were. The bases of these vine-stem handles are visible above and below the remains of the pedum. The lip is enriched with a delicate fillet and head, leading to a series of flat ovolos or eggs and darts. The quality of the carving is dry but excellent, giving every indication of paralleling the best decorative work from Hadrian's villa at Tivoli. In a garden in the sunlight the whole vase must have presented a striking effect, for the marble is almost translucent.
This vase, or the bowl from which the fragment comes, is a reduced version of the famous Warwick vase, said to have come from Villa Adriana and in reality cleverly composed in the Piranesi style from a few ancient fragments.
Scientific Analysis:
Harvard Lab No. HI717: Isotope ratios - delta13C +2.74 / delta18O -2.86, Attribution - Carrara, Justification - White, fine grained marble.
ProvenanceBy 1901: with E. P. Warren (according to Warren's records: Bought in Rome.); purchased by MFA from E. P. Warren, December 1901