Pr. 19th Century Grand Tour Patinated Bronze Warwick Vases with Bacchic masks

Description

Pair of Large 19th Century Grand Tour Patinated Bronze Warwick Vases/Centerpieces with Bacchic Masks The pair is formed as large bronze Warwick type vases with deep circular bowls rising from short stems and wide circular pedestal bases. Each vessel displays a rounded body with a broad flared rim bordered by a continuous bead and tongue molding. Beneath the rim runs a band of small projecting leaf forms spaced along a horizontal molding. The body is encircled by a series of molded Bacchic mask heads in relief, each representing a bearded male face with defined hair, brows, and long curling beards. The masks are linked by draped garland forms that extend across the surface of the bowl. At each side large entwined handles emerge from the upper body and curve outward before returning toward the rim. The handles are formed as twisted rope like strands with pronounced ridges and tight spirals. The lower section of each vase narrows toward a molded collar above the pedestal foot. The foot is cast with vertical fluting that radiates upward from a wide circular base. The surface retains a dark brown patina with areas of natural tonal variation. This pair follows the design of the celebrated Warwick Vase, an ancient Roman marble vessel discovered at Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli around 1771 by the Scottish painter and antiquarian Gavin Hamilton. The marble original displays Bacchic ornament including mask heads and vine related motifs connected to the cult of Bacchus. After its discovery the vase became widely known through engravings and plaster casts. The original marble was later acquired for the Burrell Collection near Glasgow in Scotland. During the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the form was widely reproduced in bronze and marble for collectors participating in the Grand Tour. Bronze reductions of the Warwick Vase became a prominent type produced for the Grand Tour market during the nineteenth century. Workshops in Rome and other Italian centers created bronze versions using cast and chased techniques that reproduced the Bacchic masks, garlands, and entwined handles of the ancient prototype. Large bronze versions such as this pair required complex casting and careful finishing to achieve the continuous relief decoration and defined surface modeling. The scale, detailed casting, and preserved patina of this pair place them among the more substantial Grand Tour interpretations of the Warwick Vase design, a form long valued by collectors of classical revival bronze objects.

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