The Portland Vase : the extraordinary odyssey of a mysterious Roman treasure / Robin Brooks.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brooks, Robin (Robin Jeremy)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

British Museum.

Portland Vase.

Glassware, Roman.

Vases--England--London.

Vases.

England--London.

Physical Description:

vi, 250 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : HarperCollins, [2004]

Summary:

Created for an emperor, exhumed from a burial ground, coveted, traded, smashed, restored, and stuffed full of incident and intrigue, the Portland Vase -- the most famous of all Roman antiquities -- has captivated everyone who has come into contact with it. Robin Brooks's The Portland Vase is a great romp through history with this fragile, enigmatic vessel, which has touched the lives of an array of compelling characters. Following the vase's journey across Europe over the centuries, we meet the notorious tomb-robber-cumbudding-archaeologist Fabrizio Lazzaro, who "discovered" the vase; Pope Urban VIII, who hoped to enhance his image by acquiring it; the Princess of Palestrina, who supported her nasty gambling habit by auctioning it off; the Duchess of Portland, who kept her ownership of the vase a secret; the ceramics genius Josiah Wedgwood, who devoted nearly a lifetime to trying to create a satisfactory reproduction; the Irishman who shattered it and the restorers who have since repaired it; and a host of other politicians, dilettantes, and scam artists. Their stories -- how they came by the vase, how they disposed of it, and how it affected them -- result in a narrative rich with passion, inspiration, and jealousy that spans more than two thousand years.

Made before the birth of Christ, when glassblowing was still a new art, the Portland Vase remains unparalleled in its craftsmanship. Surprisingly, despite the extraordinary technological advances of the past two thousand years, how, exactly, the vase was made remains a mystery. But this is only one of the riddles that still surrounds the vase. Today art historians still can't agree on the identity of the figures depicted on it, or what story these figures are meant to tell. Furthermore, who made the vase? What was it used for? The Portland Vase remains one of the art world's greatest enigmas. A continuing inspiration for artists, poets, historians, and art collectors, the vase now sits quietly in a little glass case in the British Museum -- seemingly inviolate, perfect, eternal.

Contents:

The Lip

The Body

Fragment 1 Breaking 9

Fragment 2 Making 20

Fragment 3 Discovery 26

Fragment 4 Cardinal Del Monte and Nicolas Fabri de Peiresc 37

Fragment 5 The Pope 46

Fragment 6 Galileo Galilei and Tommaso Campanella 53

Fragment 7 Cassiano dal Pozzo and the Barberini 62

Fragment 8 James Byres 74

Fragment 9 James Tassie and John Keats 90

Fragment 10 Sir William Hamilton 99

Fragment 11 The Duchess and Mrs. Delaney 123

Fragment 12 Josiah Wedgwood 134

Fragment 13 The Dukes of Portland and the Duchess of Gordon 157

Fragment 14 John Doubleday and Thomas Windus 169

Fragment 15 John, Fifth Duke of Portland and John Northwood 175

Fragment 16 Christie's 188

Fragment 17 Restoration 197

Fragment 18 The Emperor Augustus 210

Fragment 19 Jerome Eisenberg and Susan Walker 217

The Base.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-233) and index.

ISBN:

0060510994

OCLC:

54960357