ROME, MID-17TH CENTURY

The combination of porphyry, a stone embodying an allusion to royal and princely taste, with the strikingly abstract design of this vase's handles lend this lot a unique and timeless quality. A virtually identical vase is preserved in the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, and was acquired by Philip IV of Spain through his viceroy in Naples, the conde de Oñade in 1652, apparently at the advice of Diego Velázquez (A. González-Palacios. Il Tempio del Gusto: Le Arti decorative in Italia fra classicismi e barocco. Roma e il Regno delle due Sicilie, II, Milan, 1984, p. 147. fig. 335). González-Palacios relates the vase in the Prado to a pair of nero antico marble amphorae with serpentine-form handles attributed to the porphyry specialist Silvio Calci, after the design by Alessandro Algardi (1598-1654) now in the Galleria Borghese (ibid., p. 175). Similarly to his contemporaries, Algardi executed various designs for non-figural works, including vases, all of which, not unlike the handles on the present lot, are highly imaginative and original. For examples of Algardi’s vase designs see one in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. no. 1979.131) and another offered Sotheby’s, London, 29 July 2020, lot 200. According to González-Palacios, an additional comparable vase is a single porphyry urn preserved in the Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine in Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, an important center for the cult of Mary Magdalene, (ibid., p. 175). This urn was similarly manufactured in a Roman workshop and later blessed by Pope Urban VIII, before it was used to transpose the relics of Mary Magdalene in 1660. Louis XIV personally attended this sacred occasion, making the pilgrimage to Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume to witness the solemn rite.