The Borghese Vase is a monumental krater sculpted in Athens from Pentelic marble in the second half of the 1st century AD as a garden ornament for the Roman market.[1] [2]
Standing 1.72 metres tall and with a diameter of 1.35 m. The vase has no handles, a gadrooned lower half, a cabled motif to the base of the stem, and an octagonal plinth.
It depicts a Bacchanalian procession, said to depict satyrs and maenads accompanying Dionysus and Ariadne. However, the figures said to be satyrs have neither the common characteristics of cloven feet nor equine tails flowing to the floor as typically shown on Greek pottery and others refer to the figures as Sileni. The draped figures are often said to be Maenads but are clearly not: Maenads are females who accompany Dionysus but on the vase a draped male figure is depicted. One of the figures is shown being anointed, typically a symbolic act of divinity, leading to the interpretation of some of the figures as Apollo and [Dionysus] rescuing Silenus who is shown falling down reaching for a spilled flagon of wine. This scene on the vase corresponds to the saying "The Gods look after children and drunken men" which has been passed down orally through many generations. Many copies of the vase do not correctly depict the scene, replacing Dionysus with a female figure on the wrongful assumption that a sexual act is in progress.
The vase was rediscovered in the gardens of Sallust in Rome in 1566 and acquired by the Borghese family. Napoleon bought it from his brother-in-law Camillo Borghese in 1808, and it has been displayed in the Louvre since 1811.
Together with the similar, but slightly smaller, Medici Vase, it is one of the most influential pair of vases from antiquity.[3] It remains a popular subject for imitation in bronze or porcelain, for example in [Coade Stone] by [Mrs Coade] and also by Wedgwood.
References
[Wedgewood copy of the Borghese Vase] [Image of the Borghese vase showing male mortal next to female playing the Kithara] [Accurate Coade copies of the figures on the Borghese Vase]
 | This sculpture article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |