| Method | Copper engraving with hand colouring |
| Artist | Giovanni Battista Passeri |
| Published | Romae, MDCCLXX. Ex Typographio Johannis Zempel. [1770] |
| Dimensions | Image 280 x 156 mm, Plate 307 x 176 mm, Sheet 397 x 243 mm |
| Notes |
A depiction of a red-figure vase, with two panels below featuring details of its decoration, Plate 161 from Volume 2 of Passeri's Picturae Etruscorum in Vasculis Nunc Primum in Unum Collectae. The vase is probably an amphoriskos, a miniature two-handled storage vessel often used for perfumed oils. Its decoration features two naked, bearded men holding fillets of wool or cloth. Passeri identifies them as satyric or silenic figures, part of the Bacchic procession, owing to their energetic movement. The top character prepares to leap over a small sacred tree, perhaps a laurel. Passeri describes the items surrounding the second figure as the contents of the cista mystica, the chest or basket that held the sacred objects of the Dionysiac Mysteries, as well as a pomegranate, which in Greek mythology was considered the fruit of the dead. Equally though, these figures may simply be a pair of bearded athletes. Condition: Minor time toning to edges of sheet. Light printers crease to top left corner of plate. |
| Framing | unmounted |
| Price | £80.00 |
| Stock ID | 39838 |