Made by Wedgwood (Josiah Wedgwood and Sons) / Portland Vase / 19th century (ca. 1840-60)

Made by Wedgwood (Josiah Wedgwood and Sons)
Portland Vase
19th century (ca. 1840-60)
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Creator Name: Wedgwood, Josiah and Sons
Creator Role: factory
Creator Name-CRT: Made by Wedgwood (Josiah Wedgwood and Sons)
Title: Portland Vase
View: Full View
Creation Start Date: 1840
Creation End Date: 1860
Creation Date: 19th century (ca. 1840-60)
Object Type: Decorative Arts and Utilitarian Objects
Classification Term: Ceramics-Pottery
Materials and Techniques: Jasper ware
Dimensions: H. 10 3/8 in. (26.4 cm)
AMICA Contributor: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Owner Location: New York, New York, USA
ID Number: 94.4.172
Credit Line: Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1894
Rights: http://www.metmuseum.org/
Context:

Josiah Wedgwood, whose ceramic creations evoked the styles and themes of antiquity so popular in the late eighteenth century, produced a copy of the celebrated Portland Vase in black-and-white jasper-ware. The original, attributed to the Roman gem-cutter Dioskourides, is in the style of works made between 30 and 20 B.C. After its discovery in the late sixteenth century in the tomb of the Emperor Septimius Severus, it became one of the most admired works of antiquity and passed through an illustrious series of collections, among them those of Cardinal Barberini, Sir William Hamilton, and finally, the duchess of Portland, who donated it to the British Museum.

The iconography of the original black-and-white cameo-cut glass vessel remains a mystery, though many interpretations have been offered. A recent theory is that the frieze depicts (as the vessel is turned) Peleus entering to meet Thetis in the presence of her parents and Aphrodite and that the vase was made as a wedding present for the Emperor Augustus's daugher Julia on her marriage to Marcus Claudius Marcellus, her cousin, in 25 B.C.

Wedgwood continued to issue editions of the vase throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

AMICA ID: MMA_.94.4.172
AMICA Library Year: 2000
Media Metadata Rights: Copyright The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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