Two “Etruscan” Vases and Edgar Allan Poe

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Previous articleNext article FreeTwo “Etruscan” Vases and Edgar Allan PoeNancy Hirschland Ramage and R. D. CromeyNancy Hirschland RamageCharles A. Dana Professor of the Humanities and Arts Emerita, Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York Search for more articles by this author and R. D. CromeyAssociate Professor of History, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMore“Come!” he said at length, turning towards a table of richly enamelled and massive silver, upon which were a few goblets fantastically stained, together with two large Etruscan vases.Edgar Allan Poe, “The Visionary,” 18341The volute-krater, a vase of imposing shape made from the Archaic through the Hellenistic period in mainland Greece, also found favor in the rich Greek colonies of South Italy in the fourth century B.C. Numerous pieces discovered there were avidly collected by European cognoscenti in the late eighteenth century. These large vases, with prominent handles curling into volutes at the top, are covered with mythological images painted in the red-figure technique and are often further decorated by molded faces on the handles and by the heads and necks of swans projecting where the handles join the body. Two vases of this type hold a prominent position at the entrance to The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Roman Court (Figures 1, 2).1. Volute-krater. Attributed to the Capodimonte Painter, a follower of the Baltimore Painter, ca. 320–310 B.C. Terracotta, H. without handles 36 in. (91.4 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fletcher Fund, 1956 (56.171.63)2. Volute-krater. Attributed to the Painter of Copenhagen 4223, 340–320 B.C. Terracotta, H. 36¾ in. (93.3 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, lent by the Dubroff family (L1991.35). Photograph: Paul Lachenauer. The Photograph Studio, MMA. Courtesy of Dr. Lewis DubroffThe first, excavated in Apulia in 1786, was bought by Ferdinand IV, king of Naples, soon after its discovery, when such enormous vases were prestigious collectors’ items (Figure 1).2 Perhaps an incentive for the king’s purchase was the fact that two other volute-kraters, said to have been dug up in Bari, had been acquired by his competitor, the great vase collector Sir William Hamilton (see Figure 3).3 Depicted on the front of King Ferdinand’s former volute-krater is an assembly of the deities Athena, Apollo, Artemis, and Herakles, and below them, an Amazonomachy—a battle between Greeks and Amazons. On the neck, Hekate, a goddess of the underworld with two torches in hand, leads a four-horse chariot driven by a winged Nike, or Victory. Elaborate ornamentation on the rim, neck, shoulder, lower belly, and under the handles fills most of the space not occupied by mythological scenes. Small figures of the young Pan prance under the volutes, each decorated with the horned head of Io, a nymph turned into a heifer by Zeus. The reverse depicts a youth sitting in a shrine set between two other youths and two women, and here the neck is filled with an enormous palmette surrounded by additional ornamental leaves, tendrils, and flowers as well as other typical Greek ornament. The forefronts of four swans project at the join of the body to the neck of the vase.3. Volute-krater said to have been found in Bari. Terracotta, H. 34⅞ in. (88.6 cm). From the collection of Sir William Hamilton. The British Museum, London (GR 1772.3-20.14). Photograph: The British Museum, LondonA second South Italian vase at the Metropolitan is a typical fourth-century Apulian volute-krater, again with molded heads on the volutes and projecting swans’ heads and necks (Figure 2). The scene here shows the hero Perseus, with winged cap, making a pact with Cepheus, the father of Andromeda, whom he had rescued from a monster. The two men stand within a shrine, surrounded by seated and standing figures. The vase’s neck depicts the crowned head of a woman encircled by tendrils and flowers. The scene on the reverse shows a youth with spear and shield standing in a naiskos (shrine).In the Neoclassical period, such Greek vases were admired not only for their own beauty, but also as models for new creations that proliferated throughout Britain and the Continent. Although certain scholars already had determined in the late eighteenth century that many of the pots discovered in Etruscan tombs and elsewhere on Italian soil were actually Greek, nonetheless the term “Etruscan” stuck.4 Two early nineteenth-century pots now in Richmond, Virginia, thought at the time to be imitating Etruscan vases, were typical of the products of numerous European manufacturers who made copies of ancient vases to satisfy the desire of travelers on the Grand Tour, as well as of Italians themselves. Such tourists, especially Englishmen, would ship them back as trophies or souvenirs to decorate their town houses or country homes.John Allan, foster father of Edgar Allan Poe, probably owned the two pots in Richmond. He may have acquired them during his family’s five-year stay in England from 1815 to 1820, or later, in 1825, when outfitting his new Richmond mansion with European furnishings.5 They eventually made their way into the collection of his first wife’s nephew, Mann Satterwhite Valentine II (1824–1892), who kept them in his new home in Richmond, along with hoards of other curios and clutter (Figure 4). Upon his death, Mann Valentine bequeathed his house and collection of books, Indian relics, artifacts, paintings, and other works of art, which would have included the two Valentine vases, to the City of Richmond. His gift formed the core of the Valentine Museum, now named the Valentine Richmond History Center. The two Valentine “Etruscan” pots have an interesting history in themselves and take on added luster through what may be their cameo appearance in one of Edgar Allan Poe’s early short stories, “The Visionary,” later retitled “The Assignation.”4. Drawing room in the home of Mann S. Valentine, Richmond, Virginia. Photograph dated June 23, 1894. Photograph: Valentine Richmond History Center, Richmond, VirginiaThe Valentine Center’s two well-made vases, with shapes and designs taken from eighteenth-century engravings, are splendid representations of early nineteenth-century European taste. No more popular source for the decoration of classicizing pots existed than the two sets of volumes illustrating the successive collections of vases assembled in Naples by Sir William Hamilton, British Envoy Extraordinary at the court of Naples from 1764 to 1800. He sold his first collection of vases and other antiquities to the British Museum in 1772, a sale that partly paid for the cost of publishing the vases in four sumptuous folio volumes: Collection of Etruscan, Greek, and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of the Honble. Wm. Hamilton, His Britannick Majesty’s Envoy Extraordinary at the Court of Naples (1767–76).6 Its eccentric descriptions were written by “Baron d’Hancarville,” a nom de plume for the roguish antiquary Pierre-François Hugues. For this publication, hereafter referred to as “d’Hancarville,” Hamilton had a new typeface created and cast in Venice at enormous cost, and Neapolitan artists hand-colored its engraved plates, making the set too expensive to serve his stated purpose of educating Europe’s craftsmen in the finest ancient drawing.The publication of Hamilton’s new, second collection of vases was accordingly undertaken in Naples in a less costly format by the German artist Wilhelm Tischbein: Collection of Engravings from Ancient Vases (1791–95), hereafter referred to as “Tischbein.” Most surviving sets have three folio volumes; a fourth is rarer because many copies were burned during the invasion of Naples by French troops in 1798, before they were bound. Plates from both of Hamilton’s collections would serve as the source for the artists who made the two Valentine vases.The larger of the two pots, a well-painted vase imitating an Apulian red-figured volute-krater of the late fourth century B.C. (Figures 5, 6), appears on the tall glass-fronted case at the back right of a photograph of Mann S. Valentine’s drawing room (see Figure 4). The picture, dated June 23, 1894, was taken only two years after the foundation of his museum. This volute-krater, broken in a fall, was repaired in 1959,7 and a photograph of it was published in 1973 by a curator of the Valentine Museum who identified it as a Greek original.85. Valentine volute-krater, Side A. Terracotta. H. to top of handles 24 in. (61 cm), H. to rim 19¼ in. (48.9 cm), Diam. 12 in. (30.5 cm). Valentine Richmond History Center, Richmond, Va. (x.59.12). Photograph: Valentine Richmond History Center6. Valentine volute-krater, Side BBoth main scenes on the Valentine volute-krater, front and back, are copied from engravings in the third volume in Tischbein’s publication of Hamilton’s second collection, and both are presented as deriving from a single original Greek vase, now lost.9 Greek vases normally have a primary side (called, in modern terminology, Side A), with the more elaborate scene or more carefully painted figures; and a secondary side that was usually painted in a simpler, more careless manner (Side B). However, on the Valentine volute-krater neither illustration is typical of a Side B, and Tischbein usually did not show the second side in his engravings. Most likely the two scenes come from the Sides A of two separate pots.The scene on the body of Side A (Figure 7) is taken from Tischbein (vol. 3, pl. 21) and probably decorated a Campanian bell-krater (Figure 8).10 At the lower left of Tischbein’s plate, a hermaphrodite drives a chariot drawn by a griffin and a panther or lynx, while Eros, turning back, leads the procession. This figure is described as “Diana Egeria” by Chevalier Andrei Italinski (Minister Plenipotentiary of H.M. the Emperor of all the Russias to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies), a learned linguist, trusted diplomat, and scholarly drudge, who wrote much of the text for Hamilton’s volumes 2 and 3 in the Tischbein publication.11 Italinski points out that both Macrobius (III.8) and the apocryphal ancient author “Orpheus” say this goddess was bisexual, in which case a hermaphrodite would be an appropriate representation. However, in the painting of this figure on the Valentine vase, the hermaphrodite has been transformed into a nude Aphrodite, with no sign of the male genitalia that were clearly defined in Tischbein’s plate. Above the figure of Aphrodite/Diana Egeria, Artemis leans back, spear in hand. In the center sits a woman with a basket or libation bowl, and at right Nike stands with a mirror. On the neck of Side A, at left, is a charioteer with his cape billowing out, driving two horses, and at right is a horseman who turns back toward the charioteer and appears to be fleeing (see Figure 5).7. Detail of the body of the Valentine volute-krater, Side A8. Source of Valentine volute-krater, Side A. From Tischbein 1791–95, vol. 3, pl. 21The scene on the body of Side B of the Valentine volute-krater (Figure 9) is a copy of Tischbein (vol. 3, pl. 22) (Figure 10). In the lower register, a maenad walks to left between two prancing panthers, and above, three other women (maenads?) walk or dance, while a swan alights on a lustral basin that looks much like a birdbath. Italinski, mistakenly supposing that both plates came from one vase, linked Diana on Side A with the swan on Side B, pointing out the reference to Diana’s brother Apollo, who is often represented by the bird. Filling ornament in the picture field, reproducing that on Tischbein’s plates, decorates both sides of the vase.9. Valentine volute-krater, detail of Side B10. Source of Valentine volute-krater, Side B. From Tischbein 1791–95, vol. 3, pl. 22On the neck (see Figure 6) a dancing figure with tambourine and a seated figure with a mirror are watched by a draped and a naked man on the left, and at right by a satyr with a torch. This scene is not copied after the engravings of Hamilton’s vases, yet the shape of the Valentine volute-krater itself seems to be copied from the third of the extra (unnumbered) plates at the beginning of Tischbein’s second volume, engravings illustrating various shapes of Greek pots. This image follows a shape typical of volute-kraters from late fourth-century Apulia.The second Valentine vase, a chalice with knotted handles (Figures 11, 12), sat atop another glass-fronted case on the left wall in the photograph of Mann S. Valentine’s drawing room (see Figure 4), although its handles at the time were detached and stored inside the chalice.12 At each of the four ropelike ends, where the chalice’s handles are attached to the rim, a tiny female (?) frontal face is worked freehand into the clay (Figure 13).11. Valentine chalice, Side A. Terracotta, H. 17⅜ in. (44.1 cm), diam. 11 in. (27.9 cm). Valentine Richmond History Center, Richmond, Va. (x.59.13). Photograph: Valentine Richmond History Center12. Valentine chalice, Side B13. Valentine chalice, with frontal face on handleThe chalice is an imitation of a Hellenistic Etruscan kantharos with knotted handles. Parallels to the shape are found among pots of the so-called Malacena ware made in North Italy near Viterbo,13 and of the Gnathian ware made in Apulia, where even the little faces on the handles are sometimes present.14 It is not clear which model was used by the potter of the Valentine vase, but a similar one (without the faces worked into the clay on the handles) is illustrated in d’Hancarville’s publication of Hamilton’s vases (vol. 3, pls. 101 [Figure 14] and 102).14. Hellenistic chalice with rope handles. From d’Hancarville 1767–76, vol. 3, pl. 101. This illustration may have served as a source for the shape of the Valentine chalice.Side A of the chalice, a black-figured scene with warriors, a horse, and a seated man, has been copied after a lost Attic lekythos by the Edinburgh Painter once in the Hamilton collection (Tischbein, vol. 2, pl. 4) (Figure 15).15 On its neck is a boar hunt with elements drawn from similar Attic black-figured hunting scenes. The body of Side B illustrates the theme of Thebans bringing offerings to placate the Sphinx, who sits on an altar. The neck depicts a battle scene copied after Hamilton’s Greek original, illustrated in d’Hancarville (vol. 1, pl. 62), but reversed (Figure 16).15. Attic lekythos by the Edinburgh Painter. From Tischbein 1791–95, vol. 2, pl. 4. This illustration is the source of the main scene on the belly of the Valentine chalice, Side A. From the collection of Sir William Hamilton16. Scene from an Attic black-figured lekythos. From d’Hancarville 1767–76, vol. 1, pl. 62. This illustration is the source, but reversed, for the neck of Side B of the Valentine chalice. From the collection of Sir William HamiltonImitations of ancient Greek volute-kraters were made by numerous European potteries, including Wedgwood, Sèvres, and Ipsen (in England, France, and Denmark, respectively).16 But the workmanship of the Valentine pots is not typical of any of these potteries. Instead, close parallels are found with the Neapolitan Giustiniani pottery, begun by Nicola Giustiniani in 1760 and active until about 1885.17 Their pots are often marked with a “G” on the underside of the foot, but both of the Valentine vases have been strengthened with a modern restorer’s plaster on the underside, so that any “G” (or other mark) that might have been there has been obscured. However, stylistic parallels and the shapes of the pots confirm the identification of the Valentine vases as products of the Giustiniani pottery.18In 1815, upon the death of Nicola, his son Biagio Giustiniani took over the firm, and it was he who promoted the production for which Giustiniani is most well known: earthenware vases made “ad imitazione degli Etruschi.” It is clear that the Giustiniani pottery had at its disposal copies of d’Hancarville’s and Tischbein’s volumes of Hamilton’s vase collections and that they used them as sources for the Valentine vases as well as other pots made in the “Etruscan style.”The Valentine volute-krater, with female heads on the volutes and swans’ heads at the base of the handles, is a form after the Antique that was popular with the Giustiniani pottery, and can be compared with other confirmed Giustiniani works. One parallel in the Museo Nazionale di San Martino in Naples (Figure 17), copied after an Apulian volute-krater from Ruvo, is similar not only in shape but also in decoration.19 The neck again displays two sets of horsemen, riding toward the right, and rosettes and other standard motifs around the upper neck. The molded and applied heads of females on the volute handles are different, but the swans’ heads protruding from the base of the handles are essentially identical.17. Volute-krater by the Giustiniani firm. Terracotta, H. 22⅜ in. (56.8 cm). Museo Nazionale di San Martino, Naples (inv. 9909). Photograph: Luciano Pedicini/archivio dell’arte, on concession by Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale della di second Valentine the chalice, is of the shape as a Giustiniani identified by the “G” again in the Museo Nazionale di San Martino in Naples (Figure This chalice has many of the as the Valentine vase, including the knotted handles, the tiny faces at the join of handles to rim, and the shape of rim, neck, and the Giustiniani of the Valentine by the Giustiniani firm. Terracotta, H. in. cm). Museo Nazionale di San Martino, Naples (inv. Photograph: Luciano Pedicini/archivio dell’arte, on concession by Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale della di of the two Giustiniani vases in Richmond may come as a They to have a in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Visionary,” written at the by when the author was years Its scene is the the he a The young has into the out of the a figure appears and into the the He the to the and the to the the upon the and to that they again an after The of this his the hero to his but not before the hero the to there again early the the his the hero shows a collection of of and he a of Aphrodite, who points to at the hero to the he said at length, turning towards a table of richly enamelled and massive silver, upon which were a few goblets fantastically stained, together with two large Etruscan vases, in the model as that in the of the and filled with what to be he said The hero of the and up to the rich of a one of the the only after it is too the hero is by inside his back from the hero in the a and the his had At that a of the into the and in a with out, the two one near the the in have short to a in the of by the Baltimore and later he that “The was one of In first published the text of this in and in the he a and in the a in Richmond of which he soon In he it yet again in his of the and with but this time under his own in he published it for the time during his but now with a new “The which is the one used in at one of the most interesting in all is that of the large Etruscan vases, in the model as that in the of the It is that was to the likely to from his foster in the published in the made a that the Valentine vases with his even more the is from (in the to This the to the decoration of Side A of the volute-krater, where the most is the nude figure of driving the griffin and between Poe’s and the Valentine vases in on the of the classicizing pots by the Giustiniani in Naples, and in on the when they might have been acquired by The two pots have been made between 1815, when the court from in and Biagio Giustiniani took over his firm, and would Allan have acquired the vases, and they had been made by the Giustiniani in time for Allan to have bought them, and for to have included them in his first published as “The in took his family to Britain in 1815 was years in to an of the Richmond of and Allan, for and in England through its and

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