Pair Of Vases

Pair of vases with lead volutes, eighteenth / nineteenth time, after the crater with scrolls in marble, vase called "Sosibios" which belonged to Louis XIV, this vase is visible at the Louvre. Description of the decoration: The ivy branches adorning the neck and the godron motif on the lower part of the belly are also very close to the Greek examples. The handles are terminated by fasteners in the shape of gooseneck. On the belly, the bas-relief decor depicts a Bacchic procession in which President Artemis and Hermes gather around an altar with a burning fire. The goddess, the quiver on her back and the bow in her left hand, holds a deer by a paw and thus manifests as a huntress. Hermes is represented wearing the short coat of travelers, the chlamys, brandishing the caduceus. At the sound of musical instruments, maenads, celebrants of the cult of Dionysus, punctuate the procession of their dances. A dancing satyr, a warrior in arms, and Apollo, who plays the zither, accompany them. Bibliography - HAMIAUX M., The Greek sculptures, II, Paris, Editions of the Réunion des musées nationaux, 1998, p. 197-199, No. 216. - GRASSINGER D., Römische Marmorkratere, Monumenta Artis Romanae, XVIII, Mainz-on-Main, 1991, p. 183-185, No. 25, and passim, fig. 7, 24, 25 and pl. 16-21. - ZAGDOUN MA., The Archaic Sculpture in Hellenistic Art and Roman Art of the Upper Empire, Library of the French Schools of Athens and Rome, 1989, p. 246, No. 331, pl. 23, fig. 89. - Inscription Siciliae and Italiae, additis Galliae, Hispaniae, Britanniae, Germaniae inscriptionibus (IG), Berlin, 1890, XIV, 1262.