Townley Vase
The Townley Vase
In the 19th century it was often imagined that Keats' Ode on a Grecian Urn (1819) was inspired by the Townley Vase, though modern critics suggest instead that the inspiration was more generic, and may have also owed something to scenes portrayed on William Hamilton's collection of Greek vases which entered the BM collection at around the same time.[4]
Copies of the Townley Vase were made in plaster and imitation marble throughout the 19th century. At the turn of the 20th century terracotta versions were made by Manifattura di Signa in Italy. Between the World Wars, table lamps modelled after the Townley Vase identified "cultured" households.
Notes
- ^ Height 93cm.
- ^ Considered by Hamilton "from the magnificence of the ruins and other things found there" to have been a villa of Antoninus Pius. (A. H. Smith, "Gavin Hamilton's Letters to Charles Townley" The Journal of Hellenic Studies 21 (1901, pp. 306-321) p. 313). Antoninus Pius was born nearby.
- ^ It can be identified as "A Vase with Bacchanalians, found at Monte Cagnola, at Mr. Townley's" in the "Miscellanies" appended to the summary appended to the transcript of "Ancient Marbles found by Mr. Gavin Hamilton in various Ruins near Rome since 1769" (published in Smith 1901:321)
- ^ See Rosemary Hill, "Cockney connoisseurship: Keats and the Grecian Urn" Things Magazine 6 1997.
See also
References
- Cook, Brian F. 1986. The Townley Marbles (London, The British Museum Press), pp 18–19, fig. 15.
