The de Rothschild Vases: An Important Pair of Carved Imperial Porphyry Vases

First, we wanted to take a look at Lot 57, an important pair of French carved Imperial porphyry vases, dating to the 18^th/19^th century. Each are made in Egyptian porphyry and designed with a waisted neck flanked by dolphins. The gadrooned body is embellished with a frieze that has been carved with rinceaux and male masks. In 2020, Tomasso reunited these two vases, which were undoubtedly conceived as a pair. Separated in their recent history, the vases have different provenances: one comes almost certainly from the De Rothschild Collection, thence to an important Swiss collection (by repute, Alain Moatti, possibly acquired from Galerie Camoin Demachy, Paris), whilst the other one belonged to the De Rothschild collection, Exbury House in Hampshire.

Quarried exclusively at Mons Porphyrites in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, Imperial porphyry has been prized since antiquity for its remarkable hardness and lustrous purple colour, which bears a close resemblance to that of a particularly expensive pigment developed by the Phoenicians, known today as Tyrian dye. Several literary sources from antiquity speak of Alexander the Great's partiality to this colour, of his custom of wearing purple robes and of decorating his palaces with porphyry. The heirs to his throne in Egypt, the Ptolemies, are said to have continued this tradition, but it is only with the Roman Emperors Nero and Vespasian, towards the end of the first century A.D., that the association of porphyry with secular and religious power became established in Western civilisation.

Rome, the seat of the Empire, is where centuries later ancient porphyry statues, slabs, columns and vessels were excavated, as a result of the Renaissance period's renewed interest in classical art and architecture. The potent symbolism of porphyry, with its strong imperial connotation, thus assumed an additional level of meaning, as an emblem of Renaissance courts' erudition, fascination with antiquity and aspiration to parallel ancient Rome's splendour.

By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, porphyry was avidly collected by powerful figures such as the Medici Grand Dukes of Tuscany, the French cardinals Richelieu (1585-1642) and Mazarin (1602-1661), and the 'Sun King' Louis XIV of France (1638-1715), who had a buying agent in Rome for his acquisitions. The interest in porphyry was such that it prompted artists to rediscover the art of carving it, a practice for which ancient Roman columns and other fragments were used, since Mons Porphyrites in Egypt had become inaccessible, a fact that further enhanced the rarity and value of works in this material.

The presence in Rome of influential figures such as Cardinal Richelieu introduced to Paris the taste for beautifully carved porphyry, which arguably culminated during the reign of the Sun King Louis XIV. In his residence at Versailles, the Gallery of Mirrors boasts to this day one of the most extraordinary collections of porphyry objects, comprising both vases and busts. Whilst no prototype has been identified for the design of the present pair of vases, the dolphin handles are emblematic of the Grand Dauphin (1661-1711), the son of Louis XIV. The zoomorphic handles follow in the tradition of Roman porphyry vases of the 17th century, such as the vase carved by Giovanni Battista Pozzi around 1684, now in the Wallace Collection.

A 17th Century Bronze Figure of Mars

After the model by Giambologna, we have a 17th century figure of Mars (Lot 155). This bronze depicts a muscular nude male figure striding forward with his right foot, his left arm and hand outstretched, whilst his right hand would have originally held a sword. The bearded head, with the mouth partly open, is sharply turned to the left, whilst the body is represented in a diagonally upward rising movement - the Mannerist figura serpentinata. Designed to be seen in the round, the muscular figure is presented in a carefully calculated, complex stance: by means of the outstretched arms, the striding motion and the emphatic rotation of the upper body, the figure dominates the surrounding space.

Mars, or Gladiator as it was sometimes referred to in the early literature, was one of Giambologna’s most popular models. The Flemish Jean Boulogne (1529-1608), better known by his Italianised name Giambologna, was the most influential Mannerist sculptor in Europe. Giambologna’s first encounter with Italy, his adoptive land, happened in 1550 when the young artist set off to Rome to study the great works of antiquity and the masters of the Renaissance. On his way back home, he stopped in Florence where he enjoyed the patronage of the influential Florentine aristocrat Bernardo Vecchietti (1514-1590). Vecchietti’s contacts, together with Giambologna’s innate talent, eventually led to his introduction to the ruling Medici Grand Dukes. His first Medicean commission (1560) was the seminal marble group of Samson slaying a Philistine, now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, completed for the future Grand Duke Francesco I (1541-1587), who appointed him as court sculptor a year later in 1561. It was in this decade that Giambologna began producing bronzes, later setting up his workshop and own foundry at Borgo Pinti. His exquisite small bronze statuettes, avidly collected by European connoisseurs and often used by the Medici as diplomatic gifts, disseminated his sophisticated style throughout the courts of Europe.

Further carrying his vocabulary across the Alps were the numerous Northern European pupils who trained in his workshop, most notably Adriaen de Vries (1556-1626), Pierre de Francqueville (1548-1615), Hans Reichle (1570-1642), and Hubert Gerhard (1540-1620). A versatile, innovative and prolific sculptor, who produced extraordinarily varied compositions - from mythological scenes to images of the crucified Christ - Giambologna dominated Florentine sculpture in the second half of the sixteenth-century and had an enormous influence on his contemporaries, one that was re-echoed in the seventeenth century by the later generations.

A Rare Roman Marble Head of a Boy as Eros

Epitomising youthful charm, we have Lot 255, a rare Roman marble head of a boy as Eros. The head, dating to circa 1st/2nd century A.D, is set on a later Renaissance bust. This work shows the thoughtful expression typical of classical portrait busts. His soft face is characterised by supple cheeks, full lips, almond-shaped eyes, and dimpled chin. The boy’s hair is styled in the guise of Cupid, the Roman God of affection and desire; a large central braid which runs from the forehead to the crown of his head parts gently tousled thick waves of hair. Though this distinctive hairstyle can be traced back to depictions of Eros from Hellenistic Greece, it was adopted by Romans in the following centuries as a defining characteristic of the deity Cupid. Whilst the bust’s large central braid leads to an identification with Cupid, the slightly imperfect, asymmetric facial physiognomy suggests that the work was sculpted as a private commemorative portrait. A particularly popular practice in the second century A.D. saw the sculpting of portrait busts with personalised features styled into an overall type of mythical figure, and examples can be found in both the case of adults and children.

Cupid was the Roman God of love and desire, the mischievous yet endearing son of Venus. Whilst his Hellenistic predecessor was primarily depicted as a muscular adolescent, it was Eros’ youthful image which survived well into Imperial Rome, where he was frequently represented as a plump and playful child. Undoubtedly, the physical and behavioural similarities between Roman children and the God would have been recognised by an ancient audience. Unlike mortal children who would eventually grow to adulthood, the Roman Cupid perpetually existed in a childlike appearance and behaviour. Depictions of Roman children in the guise of the God conveyed ideas of both a sentimental and an idealised childhood, one which they could never outgrow.

The emperor Augustus himself is said to have possessed a portrait of a boy in the guise of Cupid in his bedroom and is noted to have kissed the bust ‘fondly whenever he entered the room’. Additionally, the emperor’s wife Livia is recorded as having dedicated a portrait of a young boy dressed as Cupid to the temple of Venus on the Capitolium (effigiem cupidinis).

The reign of the emperor Augustus saw an increase in sculptural representations of children in both domestic and private contexts. Whilst in public monuments such as the Ara Pacis Augustae (Altar of Augustan Peace, completed 9 B.C.), youths are depicted in a playful manner, tugging at the togas of their adult companions, privately commissioned sculptures, such as the present object, were focused more on capturing the physiognomic nature and character of the sitter. Such distinctive personal facial characteristics indicate the great lengths that the sculptor went to in rendering a recognisable likeness of the boy that signalled both his identity and his individual personality.

A large and rare marble figural group of Cupid and Psyche

Another depiction of Cupid in the sale, is Lot 359, a large and rare white marble figural group of Cupid and Psyche. The story of the young lovers, which originates in the 2nd century A.D. novel Metamorphoses by Apuleius, tells of how Venus’ divine son Cupid fell in love with the mortal princess Psyche, and the obstacles she had to overcome to be reunited with him.

This intimate marble group of Cupid and Psyche embracing is after the Roman model excavated on the Aventine Hill in 1749, and which was gifted by Pope Benedict XIV to the Capitoline Museum in the following year. Its subject has traditionally been identified as Cupid and Psyche, a theme that had long been familiar to artists and antiquarians from ancient reliefs, sarcophagi, intaglios, and free-standing statues, such as the one discovered at Santo Stefano Rotondo in 1666, in the possession of the Medici Grand Dukes since the late 17th century.

In the 18th century, the composition was popularised by small scale reproductions in bronze, such as those by the Zoffoli workshop in Rome, and other media, such as Wedgwood intaglio and Sèvres porcelain. The present marble, which matches in material and size the Capitoline original and stands on a beautifully striated marble column, speaks of a more ambitious commission, either from an Italian patron or a Grand Tourist, intended for a stately palazzo or townhouse, or a grand country residence.

A Large and Important Neapolitan Volute Krater by Cherinto del Vecchio

By Cherinto del Vecchio (active c. 1820-1840), is a large and important Neapolitan volute krater (Lot 210). The colours used imitate the white-ground vases first developed in Athens, predominantly in the form of funerary lekythoi, in the 5th century B.C. The shape of this vase is also based on ancient Greek models, specifically volute kraters, a type of vessel first popularised in 5th century B.C. Attica. It is a striking example of Del Vecchio all’antica earthenware. It was exhibited at the Saggi dei Prodotti dell'Industria Nazionale in Naples in 1828, where it one a silver medal. Priced at 120 ducats, it was described as “a vase of extraordinary size resting on a significantly marbled column in clay”, the support that accompanies it to this day. Additionally, its style was catalogued as “imitating the Egyptians”, the common definition at the time for wares with black figures over white backgrounds, which betrays the period’s lack of understanding of the classification of ancient terracotta vessels, but also underlines the fact that they were prized for their emulation of sources from a distant land and past.

The central register of the krater depicts two battle scenes: on one side, warriors with helmets and shields advance beside a chariot carrying two standing figures drawn by two horses, and on the other, warriors on foot and on horseback engage in battle. Whilst a specific ancient prototype has not been identified, in general terms these scenes recall popular depictions of the Trojan war on Attic black-figure pottery, such as on a krater-kylix now in the Archaeological Museum of Athens.

Figures and animals similar to those on this vase appear in other del Vecchio wares. Among both del Vecchio and Giustiniani all’antica earthenware painted to echo the white-ground technique, the present krater stands out for its ambitious format, rich decoration, and fine quality. Its survival together with its original marbleised column represents a rarity and important rediscovery.

In 1753, Charles of Bourbon, King of Naples, established the Real Fabbrica di Maioliche in Caserta, the first royal manufacture of glazed earthenware in the Southern Italian kingdom. Among the Real Fabbrica’s chief figures was maiolica painter Angelo del Vecchio, whose repertoire was characterised by exquisitely naturalistic motifs, paired with rocaille and chinoiserie elements, matching the rococo taste of the period.

In 1776, two additional members of the del Vecchio family - brothers Gennaro and Nicola - were named in a payment document with the honorific title of “don”, indicating they had reached a degree of commercial success and social standing. The renown of the del Vecchio manufactory by the late eighteenth century can be gauged by the fact that in 1785 King Ferdinand IV of Naples paid them 18,000 ducats to develop a formula imitating what was described as “English yellow ware”.

In the nineteenth century the del Vecchio manufactory expanded its range and technical expertise, from fired clay that imitated veined marble to painted porcelain and glazed all’antica ware such as the present krater. They participated in various exhibition notably the Saggi Dei Prodotti dell’Industria Nazionale (Samples of the products of national industry) in Naples under the patronage of the Real Istituto d’incoraggiamento di arti e manifatture (Royal Institute for the Encouragement of the arts and manufactories). Gennaro del Vecchio is mentioned in exhibition catalogues up to 1810, while from 1812 his brother Nicola is listed as head of the family manufactory, followed in 1818 by Gaetano, who belonged to the next generation of del Vecchios. It was the latter who first promoted the creation of large vessels with decorative elements, initially gilt, such as the pair of marbleised vases with handles in the shape of the Hercules Farnese, now in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples (Silver medal, 1818).

Sometime in the mid-1820s, Cherinto del Vecchio took over the manufactory and under his direction the production of vases imitating the antique flourished, alongside the more traditional one of creamware, as attested by the medals received by the fabbrica del Vecchio at the Naples exhibitions of 1826, 1828, 1836, 1838 and 1840. Such all’antica vessels responded to the antiquarian taste that had steadily developed since the rediscoveries of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the first half of the eighteenth century, first pioneered in the field of Southern Italian earthenware by the Giustiniani manufactory.

An Italian Carved Fruitwood Mirror

From the selection of furniture in the collection, here we have Lot 148, an Italian carved fruitwood mirror, made in the manner of Andrea Brustolon. The mirror frame, a tour-de-force of wood carving, is characteristic of the Baroque style that was born in Rome around 1620 and spread throughout mainland Europe in the 17th and early 18th centuries. The flamboyant three dimensional composition typifies the Baroque desire for luxuriance and lavish ornamental decoration, a style that was disseminated in Italy and beyond through published designs such as those of Filippo Passarini.

Perhaps the best known exponent of this style is the sculptor Andrea Brustolon (1662-1732). Born in Belluno, north of Venice, he trained first with the Genoese sculptor Filippo Parodi, then moved to Rome 1678 - 80 where he finessed his craft through exposure to and study of the work of Bernini before moving back to Venice. His best known work is the extensive suite of furniture supplied to the nobleman Pietro Venier, now in the Ca' Rezzonico, Venice. This included a large side table and vase stand of boxwood and ebony, designed as an ensemble for the display of Japanese porcelain, depicting allegories of Hercules with the Hydra and Cerberus, moors and reclining river gods. Brustolon's design for an allegorical frame, 1700-10, is in the collection of the Museo Civico, Bulluno and it is this style of carving with which he has become synonymous. However a mirror frame by Brustolon also in the Museo Civico offers a slightly more restrained vocabulary with putti among dense acanthus and flowerheads, consistent with the lot offered here. After 1685 Brustolon limited his work to just devotional sculptures and tabernacles.

A George III Bookcase Designed by John Linnell

Another piece of exquisite furniture is Lot 239, a George III mahogany, padouk, marquetry and ebonised bookcase, circa 1765. The cabinet corresponds directly to a drawing in pen and ink wash by the London upholsterer, carver and cabinet-maker John Linnell (d.1796) which combines elements of the rococo with the emerging neo-classical fashion promoted at the time by designers such as William Chambers James 'Athenian' Stuart and Robert Adam. The drawing is among a large surviving collection held by the Victoria & Albert Museum, London which demonstrate John Linnell’s remarkable talent for design.

This bookcase displays curvaceous applied decoration including the shell cresting, C-scroll clasps at the cavetto moulded waist and the leaf clasps on the doors. All carved in Boxwood, these reflect the rococo taste that was in decline in the early 1760s. The flattened leaf pattern to the cornice and the ebony guilloche border to the lower door panels is distinctly neo-classical, and the oval panels themselves are a distinctive and recurring feature of John Linnell’s designs at this time, not only in door panels, but also for pier glasses, chair backs and marquetry designs, while the quatrefoils centering the lowers doors are ‘Roman’. The design follows almost exactly the V&A drawing and relates closely to a pair of bookcases made for an unknown client, one of which bears the pencil inscription `WL’ (for William Linnell?).

Linnell followed in the footsteps of his father William Linnell (d.1763) and together they created one of the most successful and inventive cabinet-making businesses of the 18th century. William and probably also John worked for the architect/designer William Kent as cabinetmakers having executed a table to Kent’s design for James West at Alscot Park, Warwickshire in 1750. They are also credited with supplying around 1760 a remarkable suite of Kentian mahogany hall furniture, comprising four armchairs and a settee to either Edwin Lascelles (for either Harewood House or his London House in Portland Place) or his brother Daniel Lascelles (for Goldsborough Hall). Both works demonstrate the mastery of father and son in the execution of established, or even archaic designs (since Kent had died in 1748) but also their confidence, and particularly so John’s, in embracing the more modern, forward-looking styles that reflected the emerging fashion for classicism.

While the early provenance for this cabinet is unknown, it was later in the collection of the Sir Sidney Hedley Waterlow, Bt. (1822-1906), the entrepreneur, philanthropist and politician who served as Mayor of London 1872-73. A man of taste, he was a Commissioner at the Great Exhibition, 1851 and served as juror at the Paris International Exhibition in 1867 for which he was knighted. Designs for the decoration of his London house at 29 Chesham Place, 1886, by the architect George Aitchison are in the collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

'Young David' by Guercino

The collection also includes a number of traditional artworks. A highlight is Lot 306, 'Young David' by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (called Guercino). This unpublished canvas may be identified as the 'testa di un davide' that Guercino painted for his friend Gerolamo Panesi and for which he was paid 30 scudi on 16 October 1649. In the painting, David holds the sword with which he had beheaded Goliath. Rather than engage the spectator, he stares into the distance, as if pondering the consequences of his victory. The velvety paint textures, the attractive colouring, the figure's classical pose and the delicate rendering of selected details fit perfectly with Guercino's mid-Bolognese period. The occasional flourishes of impasto that punctuate the smooth paint surface include the plume on David's cap and the fur of the lining to his cloak, especially where it touches and slightly overlaps his right thumb.

In 1648-1650 Panesi commissioned at least five pictures from Guercino. Panesi was a Genoese nobleman and art dealer and, during the artist's Bolognese period, was one of his more consistent and discerning clients, selling on some of the pictures he had commissioned from the master at a higher price in Rome, where he was mainly resident. Guercino stuck resolutely to his tariffs, yet somehow Panesi was able to persuade the painter to give him a discount, for example by reducing his standard-sized canvases in return for dropping his charge.

In the following year, Guercino painted a 'Meza Figura del davide con la Testa di Golia Gigante' for a Sig. Lodovico Fermi of Piacenza, for which he was paid 75 scudi on 12 October 1650. Fermi's David is known from two versions—the actual-sized sketch in the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, and the finished picture, now in a private collection. Both correspond almost exactly in size and are significantly larger than the present picture. In format, a half-length was the next size up from a head-and-shoulders and it generally included extra details, such as, in this instance, Goliath's severed head. Fermi paid Guercino 75 scudi for his picture, as compared to Panesi's 30 scudi, for a picture just over half the size of Fermi's, painted in the previous year.

With such a busy practice, Guercino was inevitably asked to paint the same subject several times, especially for his half-lengths and heads. A commission for a subject, perhaps painted previously on other occasions, required a fresh invention. Guercino could avoid repetitions by referencing past drawings, but inevitably one compositional treatment morphed subtly into the next. From the point of view of Guercino's creative method, much may be learned by comparing Panesi's David with Fermi's, since similarities and differences abound, in costume, pose, studio props and facture.

Two further works by Guercino, both half-lengths, connect in design with the present picture. The first is a drawing in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, ascribed to Guercino but clearly by him. Despite the composition's half-length format, it could well have been made as a study for this canvas, with the head of Goliath included as an alternative to David's sword. Notwithstanding these differences, the overall correspondence is close. The second is a painting formerly in the collection of the King of Sardegna, now belonging to the Galleria Sabauda in Turin, presently on show at the Venaria Reale, which is reproduced here from a lithograph by Luigi Poggioli. As here, Goliath's head is absent from the composition of the Turin picture. Its larger size and the introduction of the regal columnar architecture in the background bring it nearer to Fermi's canvas.

Strong echoes of the present painting are easily to be found in the Windsor drawing and the Turin picture. But it is the hybrid format of the present canvas that pins it down as the one ordered by Panesi. It is a reduced-sized half-length and is bigger and has more detail than Guercino's normal head-and-shoulders format. This rare exception to the painter's rule was probably the result of Panesi's successful haggling.

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Auction Details

Tuesday 29 & Wednesday 30 October, 10.30am GMT
Donnington Priory, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 2JE

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VIEWING:

• Viewing in London (highlights):
  • Monday 14 October: 10am-4pm
  • Tuesday 15 October: 10am-4pm
  • Wednesday 16 October: 10am-4pm
• Viewing in Newbury (full sale)
  • Saturday 26 October: 10am-3pm
  • Sunday 27 October: 10am-3pm
  • Monday 28 October: 10am-4pm
  • Tuesday 29 October: 9am-4pm
  • Wednesday 30 October: 9am-12 noon