Lot Essay
EUNEMOND-ALEXANDRE PETITOT AND PHILIP, DUKE OF PARMA
These vases were designed by the architect and ornamentalist Eunemond-Alexandre Petitot (1727-1801) circa 1760, either for his patron Philip, Duke of Parma (d.1765) or one of his leading courtiers. A pupil of Jacques-Germain Soufflot in Lyons, Petitot studied at the Academy in Paris, where he won the Grand Prix d'Architecture in 1745. From May 1746 until April 1750 he resided in Rome as a stipendiary at the French Academy, where he designed extensive architectural settings in the manner of Louis-Joseph Le Lorrain, architect of Lalive de Jully. Indeed, it was through the recommendation of Le Lorrain and Lalive de Jully's mutual friend, the comte de Caylus, for whose book Recueil d'Antiquités Petitot had already engraved several plates, that Petitot was appointed architetto delle fabbriche ducali to the Duke of Parma in 1753
Petitot was responsible for introducing neo-classicism to Parma, where he remained for the rest of his life, designing the facade of S. Pietro (1761), the interior of the Biblioteca Palatina (1763) and the extensions to the Palazzo Ducale (1767)
In his Suite de Vases of 1764, Petitot published a related vase pattern surmounted by cockerels, emblematic of France and iconographically applicable to his patron, who was Louis XV's son-in-law. The bacchic lions may, therefore, be a reference to the Netherlands, an emblematic motif employed on the Boulle cabinet-on-stand in the J. Paul Getty Museum, California (illustrated in C. Bremmer-David et al., Decorative Arts An Illustrated Summary Catalogue of the Collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1993, no. 7, p. 14-15)
The design of these vases is one of thirty plates engraved by Benigo Bossi (1727-1792) in Parma in 1764 and dedicated to Guillaume - Léon du Tillet, marquis de Felino (1711-74) the prime minister at Parma; Another pair of vases of this model is in the J. Paul Getty Museum, California (ibid., no. 270, p. 159)
As G. Wilson notes (ibid., pp. 199-201), the actual bases of the Getty vases, like the Houghton pair, are not of porphyry but a different material, on the Getty pair of red marble and the Houghton ones of scagliola which is not visible when the mounts are in place. This suggests that the porphyry on both pairs is antique, probably cut from Roman columns. A third pair is now in a private collection in Greece, while a pair, thought to be 19th century copies, were sold by Groupe Gersainte, Me. Philippe Desbuisson, hôtel des ventes, Lille, 1991
The boldly modelled lions recall the lion grasping a horse in the celebrated Roman marble in the palazzo dei Conservatori (see C. Avery, Giambologna, Oxford, 1987, p. 60), while their positioning on the vase-rims recall Louis XIV's silver vases designed by Claude Ballin (d.1678)
Such vases were appropriate embellishments for the fashionable French buffet, with its marble and bronze ornament, such as Jacques-Francois Blondel (1705-1774) illustrated in his De la distribution des maisons de plaisances, 1737
These vases were designed by the architect and ornamentalist Eunemond-Alexandre Petitot (1727-1801) circa 1760, either for his patron Philip, Duke of Parma (d.1765) or one of his leading courtiers. A pupil of Jacques-Germain Soufflot in Lyons, Petitot studied at the Academy in Paris, where he won the Grand Prix d'Architecture in 1745. From May 1746 until April 1750 he resided in Rome as a stipendiary at the French Academy, where he designed extensive architectural settings in the manner of Louis-Joseph Le Lorrain, architect of Lalive de Jully. Indeed, it was through the recommendation of Le Lorrain and Lalive de Jully's mutual friend, the comte de Caylus, for whose book Recueil d'Antiquités Petitot had already engraved several plates, that Petitot was appointed architetto delle fabbriche ducali to the Duke of Parma in 1753
Petitot was responsible for introducing neo-classicism to Parma, where he remained for the rest of his life, designing the facade of S. Pietro (1761), the interior of the Biblioteca Palatina (1763) and the extensions to the Palazzo Ducale (1767)
In his Suite de Vases of 1764, Petitot published a related vase pattern surmounted by cockerels, emblematic of France and iconographically applicable to his patron, who was Louis XV's son-in-law. The bacchic lions may, therefore, be a reference to the Netherlands, an emblematic motif employed on the Boulle cabinet-on-stand in the J. Paul Getty Museum, California (illustrated in C. Bremmer-David et al., Decorative Arts An Illustrated Summary Catalogue of the Collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1993, no. 7, p. 14-15)
The design of these vases is one of thirty plates engraved by Benigo Bossi (1727-1792) in Parma in 1764 and dedicated to Guillaume - Léon du Tillet, marquis de Felino (1711-74) the prime minister at Parma; Another pair of vases of this model is in the J. Paul Getty Museum, California (ibid., no. 270, p. 159)
As G. Wilson notes (ibid., pp. 199-201), the actual bases of the Getty vases, like the Houghton pair, are not of porphyry but a different material, on the Getty pair of red marble and the Houghton ones of scagliola which is not visible when the mounts are in place. This suggests that the porphyry on both pairs is antique, probably cut from Roman columns. A third pair is now in a private collection in Greece, while a pair, thought to be 19th century copies, were sold by Groupe Gersainte, Me. Philippe Desbuisson, hôtel des ventes, Lille, 1991
The boldly modelled lions recall the lion grasping a horse in the celebrated Roman marble in the palazzo dei Conservatori (see C. Avery, Giambologna, Oxford, 1987, p. 60), while their positioning on the vase-rims recall Louis XIV's silver vases designed by Claude Ballin (d.1678)
Such vases were appropriate embellishments for the fashionable French buffet, with its marble and bronze ornament, such as Jacques-Francois Blondel (1705-1774) illustrated in his De la distribution des maisons de plaisances, 1737