Medici & Borghese Urns

France
Circa 1850

These cast bronze Medici and Borghese urns are after the ancient 1st century marbles. The vases are bell-shaped crater forms each with gadrooned and beaded banding, above a frieze with mythological figures in bas-relief. Fluted loop handles rise out of satyrs heads in a field of acanthus leaves. The vases stand on circular fluted bases above square plinths. Originally sculpted in Athens as garden ornaments for the Roman market, the Medici Vase is now displayed in the Uffizi Gallery and the Borghese Vase is in the Louvre Museum. The Medici Vase depicts a seated Iphigenia, Diana, and warrior heroes possibly Agamemnon, and either Odysseus or Achilles. The Borghese Vase is appointed with Bacchanalian revelers, Dionysus draped in an animal skin, and Ariadne.

Bronze
Height: 13½”
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