Warwick-Vase

The original Warwick Vase is a richly decorated marble object from the early 2nd century, which was found in 1771 in Italy. She has been known as one of representative images for the decorative art of ancient Rome. Especially in the 19th century, it was modeled in highly visible large numbers and in different sizes and materials.

The original

The Warwick Vase was in 1771 on the grounds of the Villa of the Emperor Hadrian ( 76-138 ) at Tivoli, about 25 km northeast of Rome found in several fragments. Your discovery was the English painter Gavin Hamilton, who aufbesserte his income as an artist by archaeological activities and trade in antiques. Shortly thereafter, the British ambassador in Naples and collector of antiquities Sir William Hamilton acquired the vase. He invested for the purchase and for the complicated restoration, which took about two years to complete, 300 pounds - according to the current value (2008 ) is about 30,000 pounds, 45,000 euros. In 1774 he brought the vase to England. The British Museum in London declined to purchase, then led his nephew George Hamilton, Earl of Warwick, to acquire the Antique; since then it is called Warwick Vase. In a purpose built garden buildings in Warwick Castle, Warwickshire, central England found its place for about 200 years. Meanwhile, there is a copy at this point. The original was in 1979 purchased by the Burrell Collection in Glasgow and can be visited there.

The vase was created in the years 118-133, she is 170 cm high and 211 cm wide including the handle. In the original size, it is therefore not a vessel for flowers, but more of a decorative element of garden architecture. The two handles consist of two strands of intertwined vines that continue below the rim with leaves and fruits. The underside of the body is covered with acanthus leaves. About the fur of a cat with head and claws the wall with semi and fully plastic heads is decorated - with Satyrmasken, a Silenus and the head of Dionysus. The back is designed in the same way, instead of Dionysus be found here but an image of his wife Ariadne. This woman's head is a supplement that seems to have been made ​​in the 18th century by an Italian sculptor; according to the judgment of contemporaries, he has the traits of Lady Emma Hamilton, wife of the ambassador at Naples, and mistress of Admiral Horatio Nelson. As a result of personal differences, the restorer should have their head provided with the pointed ear of a Faun. The monumental vessel is in the form and decoration of an imitation in antiquity usual drinking vessels. Imitations of such vessels existed already since the late Hellenistic period, they were made up in the later Roman Empire and preferably placed in gardens and porticoes.

Gustav Friedrich Scales, director of the Art Gallery of the Royal Museum in Berlin, in his book " works of art and artists in England " in 1938 about his impressions in Warwick Castle: "But now I longed very much to see the famous Warwickvase, which in larger and smaller reps now so common in Berlin. It is situated not far from the castle, in the middle of a greenhouse, on a fairly high pedestals, and the effect of the executed in the most beautiful white marble vessel ... really surprising. It is in size, form and excellence of the work, the most significant thing we have from antiquity to craters, or such vessels, which the ancients used to mix their wine. The current ... Graf seems to enjoy this wonderful property for a fee, for the family cares how the steward told me, often take the tea in this hothouse. "

The replicas

Early popularity throughout Europe gained the ancient art work by three widespread copper engravings, which produced the famous artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi it and in his anthology " Vasi, Candelabra, cippe, sarcophagi, tripodi ed ornamenti antichi " ( 1778) was recorded, as well as by a description which appeared in 1780 in the " Gentlemen's Magazine". When Napoleon planned the conquest of Britain, the Warwick Vase was one of the objects of his desire - after the hoped-for victory, he wanted them to exhibit as a trophy in the Louvre in Paris. Soon arose a widespread need to produce replicas of the vase - given the highly differentiated shaping of the original and with the former ways a considerable technical challenge. Probably the first usable copy succeeded in 1820 Sir Edward Thomason, a craftsman in Birmingham, who published a commemorative medal for the occasion.

In Prussia began the fashion a little later. Already in 1821 there were two views of the Warwick Vase included drawings by Johann Matthäus Mauch in the models for manufacturers and artisans, a pattern collection that was initiated by Christian Peter Wilhelm Beuth and Karl Friedrich Schinkel to support the incipient industrialization with aesthetic suggestions. Schinkel saw on his trip to England in 1826 a replica of the vase in the foundry of Thomason in Birmingham and expressed very disparaging remarks about the quality of this work. However, one of these casts, by Johann Friedrich Krigar, the inspector of the Royal Iron Foundry Berlin, from an information travel from England was brought as a template for three reduced form models in various sizes, each of which one and to the Prussian Iron Foundries in Berlin, Gleiwitz in Silesia Sayn near Koblenz went. As a gift of the year 1827/28, King Frederick William III received. a cast-iron specimen, which was lined with gold-plated copper sheet. At the Academy exhibition in Berlin in 1828, the Warwick Vase was shown as cast iron, but also as a centerpiece in the chased and cast silver - a work of the court jeweler Johann Georg Hossauer occasion of the wedding of Prince Carl of Prussia. The presentation of these two pieces sparked a strong, long-lasting demand, nor on the Berlin Trade Exhibitions of 1879 and 1896 were more replicas to be seen. The vase was cast in various sizes in iron, zinc and bronze, not only the three Prussian state-owned enterprises were involved, but also for example the Carlshütte near Rendsburg and some foundries in the resin. An impressive example of a Russian foundry, in about two thirds of the original size, arrived in 1834 as a gift of Tsar Nicholas I to the Prussian king to Berlin and has since been on a staircase landing of the Altes Museum Lustgarten. In Pleasure Ground of Branitzer parks near Cottbus Prince Hermann von Pueckler was set up in 1850 a reduced copy of the Warwick Vase, which adorns the grave of his favorite dog. - Pictures of the vase were at the beginning and in the middle of the 19th century a popular item for the decoration of porcelain items, particularly as the central motif for tableware.

The interest in the Warwick Vase is not quite extinct in the 21st century. In the antique trade replicas are offered from the 19th century. Businesses in Europe and the United States provide remakes in bronze or terracotta decoration of house, garden and swimming pool. The Victory Cup tennis tournament in Melbourne Australian Open 2006 goes back to the ancient form.

The Warwick vase as table decorations, 1895

The copy in the Altes Museum. detail