Early Bacchanalian Bachelor Tours

PP sends me a large drinking vessel collected in the early 20^th century: a 19^th century Grand Tour object. Classical bronze works of art were collected by wealthy young men on their lively and loose bachelor tours of Europe. These decorative objects were brought back as trophies, along with the usual portrait painted of that handsome rich young traveler by an eminent Italian artist. 

I believe this bronze gilded vessel is French, probably from the era of Napoleon III (1848-70), and was likely collected on the continent. There is no sculptor’s mark and no foundry mark. There is, however, a number etched into the metal of the base verso; a sign of someone cataloging this for their personal collection. Although not English, this style was covered by English blue bloods in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. 

Notice I stated that this is a drinking vessel; inspired by the first Roman god of the vine, Greek Dionysus/Roman Bacchus. The Bacchic motifs seen on the vase are masks of Dionysus, leopard and lion pelts (Dionysus’ sacred felines), and vines, bodies covered in vines, and handles of intertwining wine branches. The rod that crosses the front between the masks is the ‘thyrsus,’ the emblem of the god, a staff topped with what appears to be a pinecone. If you look close enough you will also see the presentation of phalli, which were also found in many cities that honored the god.

Dionysus/Bacchus would have been pleased with this bronze punch bowl because Dionysus was himself a collector of drinking vessels, bringing back a silver goblet from his conquest of India. There was always something rather foreign and exotic about this god, and certainly something feminine. However, there was nothing feminine (so they say) about the owner of the archetypal 1st century marble piece on which this bronze vase is based. The owner of that originating marble work happened to be the first Emperor to sport a beard: Roman Emperor Hadrian (100AD).

The original – and rare – marble vessel, called the Warwick Vase, is now housed in the Glasgow Museum in Scotland, a treasure almost eight feet high. The massive vessel was found in fragments by Gavin Hamilton (1723-1798) Scottish Neo-Classical painter, archeologist, and savvy dealer of Greek and Roman antiquities based in Rome. It was discovered in 1769-1770, while he was excavating in the silts of Lake Pantanello on the grounds of the Villa Tiburtina, the villa of the Roman Emperor Hadrian outside Rome. The vase was created for Hadrian (Roman Emperor from 117 to 138) as an adornment for the gardens of his palatial villa, the vessel likely created in ancient Tivoli in Italy. A monumental marble sculpture in the form of a two-handled drinking cup, it is decorated with acting masks and motifs relating to the cult of the Roman god of wine, Bacchus. It was sold to George Greville, Earl of Warwick. The vase stood in the courtyard of Warwick Castle for almost two centuries until it was purchased for The Burrell Collection for the Scottish Museums by the Scottish Heritage Association in 1979. 

From the 18^th century onwards, the rediscovery of the Warwick Vase has been a major source of inspiration for the Neo-Classical school in the decorative arts in Britain, bridging the millennia between Classical Antiquity and 18^th century taste and style in Britain and Europe. Look at Dionysus’ laughing face placed around the vessel, offering wine, song, dance, and debauchery. 

Dionysus/Bacchus was the slightly foreign, slightly androgynous, ultra-sexy god of theater, leopards/panthers, donkeys and goats, god of regeneration and vegetation, pleasure, madness, and collective ecstasy. His cult was a Mystery Cult; only the initiated could participate in the rituals, which involved days of revels, mainly carried out by females. Dionysus/Bacchus cults practiced sexual liberation, the god himself partaking of both heterosexual and homosexual relations. Dionysus’ favorite boy was Ampelos, who died riding a wild bull, after which the god transformed him into a vine, and a constellation in the sky, making him immortal. So writes Ovid, the Roman poet born in 43 BC.

Examples of objects from antiquity featuring Dionysius/Bacchus were found in India, in Serbia, in Greece and Italy; the god is represented in many forms, but none more famous than the Warwick Vase, of which PP’s bronze is a late 19^th century copy, not in marble, as is the original, but in cast bronze with gold overlay gilding. Sotheby’s sold one very similar at 17.5” w x 11.5” d x 10” h for $2,700 on 11/7/12: since this is an older comparable sale, I would estimate the value of the bronze at $3,000 today.