| Method | Copper engraving |
| Artist | William Blake |
| Published | London, Published Decr. 1st 1791, by J. Johnson, St Paul's Church Yard. |
| Dimensions | Plates ~200mm x 280 mm |
| Notes |
A suite of four plates attributed to William Blake, showing different aspects of the famous Portland Vase, from the indices of the third edition of Erasmus Darwin's celebrated poem, The Botanic Garden, along with four sheets of letterpress explanatory text entitled 'Note XXII - Portland Vase.' The Portland Vase, a Roman cameo glass vessel most probably created in the early first century AD, is the finest example of its kind to survive from antiquity. The origins of the vase are unknown, though by the early seventeenth century it was part of the collections of the Barberini family and was widely believed to have been rediscovered in the sarcophagus of Alexander Severus. The vase was sold to Sir William Hamilton during his time in Naples, and was brought to England and sold to the Duchess of Portland. Although the vase had been admired in antiquarian and artistic circles since the late sixteenth century, having been shown to Rubens in 1601, its arrival in England sparked a flurry of interest. It was lent to Josiah Wedgwood, who after four years produced copies in jasperware, one of which was sent to Erasmus Darwin who, in addition to being full of praise for Wedgwood's talents, also offered his own interpretations for the vase's enigmatic figural scenes. Since 1810, the vase has been on display at the British Museum, initially on loan, before being purchased from the 7th Duke of Portland in 1945. In 1784, Bartolozzi prepared a suite of engravings of the vase after drawings by Cipriani, published by Boydell under the auspices of Hamilton himself. The current set of four engravings are clearly copies of the Bartolozzi engravings, identical in composition, even despite the fact that Blake had studied the vase, and may have even been loaned it for a time. Their inclusion in the poem alongside Blake's better known and more stylistically typical plates of the Tornado and the Fertilization of Egypt were intended to explain the allusion to the vase made by Darwin in Canto II: 'Or bid Mortality rejoice and mourn / O'er the fine forms of Portland's mystic urn.' Blake, having been suggested by the publisher Johnson, was an appropriate fit. In addition to his work engraving classical subjects for the Society of the Antiquaries, Blake was also captivated by the various spiritual interpretations of the vase's figural scenes. Plate I shows the form of the vase, which was originally an amphora. At some point, whether in antiquity or the modern era is unclear, the vase was broken or remodelled, with another cameo roundel added to the vase's base in place of the original conical end of the amphora shape. Plates II and III show the two main figural groups of the vase's decoration. In Plate II, entitled here 'The First Compartment,' a central female figure reclines on a rocky outcrop, below the branches of a tree. She holds an extinguished and downturned torch, and clasps her head in what appears to be an attitude of mourning or melancholy. She is flanked by two other heroically nude figures, a male and a female, who meet each others' gaze over her head. The female figure holds a spear, while the male leans languidly upon his left arm. Both sit upon similar rocky seats to the central figure. The third Plate, showing The Second Compartment,' is composed of four figures. A young male emerges from a columned portico and reaches out to grasp the arm of a reclining central female figure, who cradles a winged serpent in her lap. To the right, an older bearded male looks on. A winged Cupid with bow and upheld torch flies above the female figure, glancing back over his shoulder at the young male. The final Plate shows 'The Handles & Bottom of the Vase,' a pair of satyrs heads, and a roundel of a youth wearing a tunic and Phrygian cap. The identity of the figures on the Portland Vase is a subject of continual debate, and usually falls into either mythological or historical interpretations. The earliest of these, no doubt either deriving from, or providing evidence for, the vase's connection to the emperor Alexander Severus, was that the vase represented stories from the life of Alexander the Great, who, like the later emperor, was often described as having divine parentage, the mothers of both men having been visited by the god Apollo in the form of a sacred serpent. Most other historical interpretations link the vase to the emperor Augustus himself, either his family, or as an allegory for the Civil Wars, with his enemy Antony succumbing to the emasculating wiles of a seductive Cleopatra, nursing the venomous asp that will eventually take her life. Most suggestions though see the figures as representatives of a mythic cycle, rather than actual historical figures. The marriage of Peleus and the sea-nymph Thetis, the parents of Achilles, is the most popular theory, though the story of Dionysos and Ariadne, or a scene from the Aeneid, are also compelling solutions. As the accompanying textual notes attest, Erasmus Darwin himself put forward an interpretation based upon the ancient Eleusinian Mysteries, a cult that continued in popularity long after the demise of Athenian power. There is a certain poetry in Darwin's interpretation. Rather than 'solve' the mystery of the vase, he has instead leaned into the enigma, suggesting a solution that by its very nature is unknowable to the uninitiated. William Blake (1757 - 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Blake trained and worked as a commercial engraver under the initial tutelage of James Basire. After his apprenticeship, Blake went on to become a student at the Royal Academy. In 1784, Blake set up in business as a print seller in partnership with James Parker. Later in 1788, at the age of 31, Blake began to experiment with relief etching, a method he would use to produce most of his books, paintings, pamphlets and poems. William Blake is regarded as one of the great geniuses in the history of art. He was largely ignored in his own lifetime, yet today is revered as a major reference point for British culture, appealing to a more universal audience than perhaps any other artist. Giovanni Battista Cipriani (1727-1785) was an Italian painter, and the first exponent of Neoclassicism in England. He played an important part in directing eighteenth-century English artistic taste. His first lessons were given to him by a Florentine of English descent, Ignatius Hugford, and then under Anton Domenico Gabbiani. He was in Rome from 1750–1753, where he became acquainted with Sir William Chambers, the architect, and Joseph Wilton, the sculptor, whom he accompanied to England in August 1755. Condition: Binders creases, minor foxing, and light dirt staining to margins. Plates trimmed to platemark on some sides, as issued, without loss to image. Light offsetting from images to accompanying text. |
| Framing | unmounted |
| Price | £400.00 |
| Stock ID | 53327 |