DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13450#0012
11
PORTL
I may add that in the delicate operation of cutting the bas reliefs the
artist has availed himself of an advantage, which this mode of working, and
this only, on his materials, could have put into his hands. To the exquisite
beauty of the sculpture he has thus been enabled to superadd the effect of
light and shade, by cutting down the parts to greater or less thinness,
according as the shade was required to be deeper or lighter, that is, the blue
underneath to be more or less visible through the semi-transparent white
relief. The gradations of shade, which give so much beauty and delicacy to
the figures, were thus fully at his command ; he could vary or deepen them
at pleasure, in any particular part, by repeating the touches of his tool,
seeing and examining his work at every stroke as he proceeded, till he had
brought the whole to be exactly conformable to his own taste and wishes,
and thereby producing a degree of thinness, in some parts of the bas reliefs,
utterly impossible to be obtained by any other means. The like effect is
observable in the antique cameos, which were executed in the same manner,
and could not have been executed on any other principle. But the expense
of working, in this manner, a vase of such magnitude would necessarily be
so great, so much time, labour, and address would be required for the pro-
duction of a single piece, that I fear no modern artist, however capable of
the execution, would engage in it.
II. Explications of the bas reliefs.
Count Girolamo Tezi,* in introducing this vase to the notice of the public,
(as has been already mentioned) gives it as his " conjecture that it was ori-
ginally made for receiving the ashes of the emporor Alexander Severus, who
(he says) will live in the memory of men on account of this very urn, as the
figures on one side of it represent his birth. For what else does the winged
* jEdes JBarberincB, p. 27.
ND VASE. 12
boy with the quiver signify but the genius of connubial love ? What the
woman, cherishing a dragon in her bosom, but Mammaea, the mother of
Severus, who, the day before she was delivered of him, dreamed that she
brought forth a purple dragon ? What the old man looking at the woman
and serpent but Time, under whose reign as it were all things originate f
What the grave and comely youth who supports the woman's arm with his
hand but Alexander the Great, as if assisting her in her labour ? for it was
in his temple that Mammsea was delivered of Severus, who always, for that
reason, rendered divine honours to him. What the small laurel shrub, and
the adult Persian (peach) tree, but a circumstance which happened in the
house of Severus, that a laurel, which sprung up on the day of his birth,
outstripped in tallness, within a year, an old peach tree that was near it f
which was reckoned an omen that the Persians would be conquered by him "
" The other tace of the vase (continues the author) does it not represent
the death of Severus t and does not the proximity of the two compartments
point out clearly the shortness of the interval between the commencement
and termination of life ? For on the same piece of turned work, on which
we have just seen the mother bringing forth, we now see another woman
lying upon sarcophagi, from whose right hand falls a bundle of torches just
extinguished: on one side of her is an elderly man,-f~ with the staff of a spear
in his hand, and on the other side a young man, each looking at the other ;
the former seeming to represent the Roman empire in the time of Severus,
and the latter the emporor himself. Next to these figures, on both sides,
[viz. at the bottom of the handles,] appear as it were two faces of masks, of
a melancholy and sorrowful aspect. There are also three fig trees, distin-
guished by the name of Alexandrine, which, a little before Severus's death,
were suddenly and portentously torn up, not by human force, but by a
whirlwind, near his tent. We see likewise, as if struck on a medal, [on the
bottom of the vase] the effigy of a philosopher,}; who, by his hand brought
f This is a female figure, rather young than old.
J No philosopher, but a female in a coif, with a Phrygian top, representing the secret divinity of
Rome ; Angerona, as Harpocrate, with finger to the mouth, enjoining silence, not to disturb a
I mystery.—T. W
PORTL
I may add that in the delicate operation of cutting the bas reliefs the
artist has availed himself of an advantage, which this mode of working, and
this only, on his materials, could have put into his hands. To the exquisite
beauty of the sculpture he has thus been enabled to superadd the effect of
light and shade, by cutting down the parts to greater or less thinness,
according as the shade was required to be deeper or lighter, that is, the blue
underneath to be more or less visible through the semi-transparent white
relief. The gradations of shade, which give so much beauty and delicacy to
the figures, were thus fully at his command ; he could vary or deepen them
at pleasure, in any particular part, by repeating the touches of his tool,
seeing and examining his work at every stroke as he proceeded, till he had
brought the whole to be exactly conformable to his own taste and wishes,
and thereby producing a degree of thinness, in some parts of the bas reliefs,
utterly impossible to be obtained by any other means. The like effect is
observable in the antique cameos, which were executed in the same manner,
and could not have been executed on any other principle. But the expense
of working, in this manner, a vase of such magnitude would necessarily be
so great, so much time, labour, and address would be required for the pro-
duction of a single piece, that I fear no modern artist, however capable of
the execution, would engage in it.
II. Explications of the bas reliefs.
Count Girolamo Tezi,* in introducing this vase to the notice of the public,
(as has been already mentioned) gives it as his " conjecture that it was ori-
ginally made for receiving the ashes of the emporor Alexander Severus, who
(he says) will live in the memory of men on account of this very urn, as the
figures on one side of it represent his birth. For what else does the winged
* jEdes JBarberincB, p. 27.
ND VASE. 12
boy with the quiver signify but the genius of connubial love ? What the
woman, cherishing a dragon in her bosom, but Mammaea, the mother of
Severus, who, the day before she was delivered of him, dreamed that she
brought forth a purple dragon ? What the old man looking at the woman
and serpent but Time, under whose reign as it were all things originate f
What the grave and comely youth who supports the woman's arm with his
hand but Alexander the Great, as if assisting her in her labour ? for it was
in his temple that Mammsea was delivered of Severus, who always, for that
reason, rendered divine honours to him. What the small laurel shrub, and
the adult Persian (peach) tree, but a circumstance which happened in the
house of Severus, that a laurel, which sprung up on the day of his birth,
outstripped in tallness, within a year, an old peach tree that was near it f
which was reckoned an omen that the Persians would be conquered by him "
" The other tace of the vase (continues the author) does it not represent
the death of Severus t and does not the proximity of the two compartments
point out clearly the shortness of the interval between the commencement
and termination of life ? For on the same piece of turned work, on which
we have just seen the mother bringing forth, we now see another woman
lying upon sarcophagi, from whose right hand falls a bundle of torches just
extinguished: on one side of her is an elderly man,-f~ with the staff of a spear
in his hand, and on the other side a young man, each looking at the other ;
the former seeming to represent the Roman empire in the time of Severus,
and the latter the emporor himself. Next to these figures, on both sides,
[viz. at the bottom of the handles,] appear as it were two faces of masks, of
a melancholy and sorrowful aspect. There are also three fig trees, distin-
guished by the name of Alexandrine, which, a little before Severus's death,
were suddenly and portentously torn up, not by human force, but by a
whirlwind, near his tent. We see likewise, as if struck on a medal, [on the
bottom of the vase] the effigy of a philosopher,}; who, by his hand brought
f This is a female figure, rather young than old.
J No philosopher, but a female in a coif, with a Phrygian top, representing the secret divinity of
Rome ; Angerona, as Harpocrate, with finger to the mouth, enjoining silence, not to disturb a
I mystery.—T. W