Vase with scenes of putti at play
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
circa 1750 - 1780
Materials
Marble
Measurements
715 mm (Height); 520 mm (Diameter)
Order this imageCollection
Osterley Park and House, London
NT 772411.2.1
Summary
One of a pair of white solid marble vases, baluster shaped with detachable cover at top. The vase is decorated throughout, mainly with gadrooning, acanthus and stylised palmettes. Two masks of fauns project from sides towards bottom. The faun masks are reminiscent of the applied heads on the Borghese Vase, a bronze reproduction of which is also at Osterley (771969.1). The main fields occupied by scenes of young boys (putti) playing; on one side three putti lead ram, at right a putto raises his hands; on the other putti with wine flasks, at right a leaping ram, restrained by two putti. These compositions derived from similar figures and scenes invented and popularised by François Duquesnoy (1597-1643).
Provenance
First recorded in the 1782 inventory of Osterley Park as in the Marble Hall. Purchased from George Child-Villiers, 9th Earl of Jersey (1910-1998) by HM Government in 1949 for the Nation and vested in the Victoria and Albert Museum; transferred to the National Trust in 2002.
Credit line
National Trust Collections (Osterley Park, The Jersey Collection)
References
Tomlin, 1986: Maurice Tomlin. “The 1782 inventory of Osterley Park.” Furniture History 22 (1986): pp.107-134., p.122 'Four elegant Marble Vases with Basic Relieve figures on carved and painted Pedestals'. Inventory of Osterley Park, 1871., p. 118 List of the China at Osterley Park, Middlesex, and at Middleton Park Oxford. Scheduled and valued for exemption under the best advice obtainable July 1915., p.306 Clifford Smith, H: An Inventory and Valuation of the Works of Art of the State Rooms at Osterley Park, Isleworth. London, Victoria and Albert Museum, National Art Library, 1939., p. 43