[classical evoking grandeur]
Male Narrator Made in China for use as an outdoor storage vessel, this large porcelain basin was fitted with its superb bronze mounts after it arrived in France to transform it into a standing vase. The four expressive satyr’s heads are connected by garlands of vine leaves bearing bunches of grapes, all executed in astonishing detail. Perhaps even more remarkable are the delicately coiled horns that spiral out of each satyr’s head. This flawless artistry has been attributed to one of Marie-Antoinette’s favorite makers of bronze mounts.
J. Paul Getty acquired the standing vase from a descendent of a Polish princess who had been a friend of the French queen’s. On returning to Paris after the revolution, the princess is said to have purchased some 20 wagonloads of goods from Versailles for her Polish castle. Whether this vase was part of that purchase is unconfirmed.
Getty appreciated an object’s history as much as its beauty, writing, “To me my works of art are all vividly alive. . . . They’ve led eventful lives—pampered by the aristocracy and pillaged by revolution, courted with ardour and cold-bloodedly abandoned. . . . Their worlds have long since disintegrated, yet they live on.”
