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Lot Essay
The powerful form of this impressive vase, executed in antique Granito verde minuto Borghesiano and Granito verde della sedia di San Lorenzo, is closely related to an example in the Palazzo Doria-Pamphilj, Rome (illustrated in A. Gonzalez-Palacios, Fasto Romano, exh. cat., Rome, 1991, cat. 167, p. 208). The Doria-Pamphilj family accounts record payments totalling 130 scudi between 1646-7 to the scalpellino or stone-cutter Silvio Calci for a porphyry vase supplied to the Villa Belrespiro.
Other vases in porphyry of this model are in the Louvre and Versailles (a set of four), while an example in red porphyry, lacking its socle, was sold in these Rooms from the Bute Collection, 3 July 1996, lot 3 (£28750), which was almost certainly acquired by John, 3rd. Earl of Bute in Italy during his Grand Tour travels of 1768-9 and 1769-71.
Other vases in porphyry of this model are in the Louvre and Versailles (a set of four), while an example in red porphyry, lacking its socle, was sold in these Rooms from the Bute Collection, 3 July 1996, lot 3 (£28750), which was almost certainly acquired by John, 3rd. Earl of Bute in Italy during his Grand Tour travels of 1768-9 and 1769-71.