Borghese Vase

Look at the rim with its egg and dart moulding and string of pearls, the vine scroll that runs beneath it, and the fluted gadroons at the base of the bowl where masks of Silenus mark the springing of the handles. The handles themselves and the foot are restorations. The carving belongs to the Neo-Attic style, in which Athenian workshops of the late Hellenistic period reproduced classical figure types for wealthy Roman clients. Each figure is a quotation, arranged with the rhythm of a frieze, and the deep undercutting of limbs and drapery makes the dancers seem to step out of the marble.

The vase was carved in Pentelic marble, probably in Athens, around forty to thirty BC and shipped to Rome to adorn a garden. It was found in 1569 in the Gardens of Sallust, the imperial pleasure grounds near the Pincian hill, and entered the Borghese collection, where it stood in the villa and was drawn, cast and imitated by artists for two centuries. Louis the Fourteenth had copies made for the gardens of Versailles. In 1807 Napoleon bought the Borghese antiquities from his brother in law Camillo Borghese, and the vase came to Paris. Its twin, the Medici Vase in Florence, shows a scene of sacrifice; together they set the pattern for the ornamental urn in European gardens.

Did You Know? Copies of this vase in bronze and marble still stand in the gardens of Versailles, where Louis the Fourteenth wanted a piece of ancient Rome.