Moulded in high relief with a continuous scene of The Triumph of Bacchus and The Drunken Silenus above a laurel garland and between borders of stylised leaves, the domed cover moulded with gadroons.
The Duca di Martina Museum, Naples, inv. 1104
We are only aware of one other early example of this model with the same frieze (without a cover) which was on the Italian art market in 2021.[1] The only other closely related early example appears to be the one in the Duca di Martina Museum in Naples of identical form but with the frieze depicting Diana and Acteon and Venus at Vulcan’s forge. This latter vase was published by Rita Balleri who discussed the terracotta models that survive in the Richard-Ginori Museum of the Doccia Manufactory which were recorded in the late 19th century inventories grouped under ‘getto Mitologico’. The terracotta for our vase is probably that listed as ‘N. 937 Orcino in terracotta con bassorilievo/ rapp.,e/Sileno ubriaco/[stanza] V/senza forme [… ]‘.[2] Balleri also describes the 19th century versions, both white and coloured of this form.[3] Balleri cites our vase which was then in the Don Pietro Bruno di Belmonte Collection, she considered the lid of our vase to be contemporary but not original to the vase; however we feel that the similarity of the paste and its appropriate proportions, as well as the difficulty of finding such a lid suggest that it has always belonged.
Two further vases without covers also with scenes from Ovid, but of slightly different proportions from a private collection were exhibited in Pisa in1998.[4]
The same figural reliefs occur on a wax model of a ewer attributed to Giuseppe Piamontini in the Museo Richard-Ginori della Manifattura di Doccia, and on fragmentary section of such a ewer in porcelain in the Castello Sforzesco, Milan.
Condition:
The vase in good condition. The cover with two 0.2 cm flat chips to rim and with typical minor short firing crack to finial.
Provenance:
Don Pietro Bruno di Belmonte Collection
Sotheby’s, Milan, Importanti Mobili, Ceramiche, Argenti ed Oggetti d’arte, La Collezione di Don Pietro Bruno di Belmonte, parte seconda e arredi già della Villa Paolina di Monte San Quirico, Lucca, 19-20 December 2006, lot 316.
References:
Balleri 2019
Rita Balleri, ‘La Collezione del Polo Museale Della Campania’, Amici di Doccia – Quaderni XII, 2019
Burresi 1998
Mariagiulia Burresi (ed.), La manifattura toscana dei Ginori. Doccia 1737-1791, (Pisa 1998), p. 95 n. 124, p. 176 fig. 124
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[1] Pandolfini, 20 October 2021, lot 140
[2] Balleri 2109, p. 51
[3] Balleri 2019, pp. 48-51
[4] Burresi 1998
RESERVED