Marble Vase

Artist/Maker: Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Object Date: c. 1770 with ancient fragments

Materials: Marble

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Description: The object is a mid-size marble vase with an associated lid. The marble is a warm peachy white, though the color and surface texture vary across the vessel. The marble is fine grained and contains several dark veins and well as silvery gray pyrite inclusions. The vase is anchored with an iron bolt/pin (visible on the inside of the vessel) to a black stone base consisting of two square tiers, the upper smaller than the lower.

Condition: The object is stable and in overall good condition. The vase is structurally sound and the surface is intact with only minor condition concerns. Dirt and grime are present on the surface of the object and dust has accumulated in recessed areas and interstices. Dust and debris have accumulated inside the vessel. The object has prior restorations on the handles and foot.

Historical Context

This vase is a significant example of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s famous restorations of ancient marbles that were made to fulfill the demand for ancient Roman works of art in the eighteenth century.

The artist Piranesi, principally known for his evocative etchings of Rome (le Veduti) and prisons (le Carceri), was also an architect, designer, and archaeologist. It is in this last role that this vase was created. Piranesi had a thriving business restoring and selling antiquities in Rome. For this vase he augmented the ancient marble fragment of the lid and shoulder by recreating the body of the vase with “strigilated” spiral fluting inspired by ancient sarcophagi, adding handles with male figures, an acanthus calyx, and a slender foot. This vase was included in his engraved series Vasi, Candelabri, Cippi… Antichi, first published in Rome in 1778, a copy of which has also been generously given by the donor, Mr. and Mrs. Goldyne. Piranesi’s most famous restoration was the large Piranesi Vase now in the British Museum, London.