A Neoclassical funerary urn of ochre Siena marble
A Neoclassical funerary urn of ochre Siena marble
A handsome and most elegant Neoclassical funerary urn finely carved in ochre Siena marble, the ovoid body decorated with well turned banding and a collar of acanthus leaves, with repeat pattern below, the ring beaded support on a circular foot above a square base, the three masks carved to the lid likely to personify The Three Fates.
Size: 22.75 inches (57.78 cm) high; 10 inches (25.4cm) diameter
Stock Number: VT20216
🔶 On Consignment
The form of these lidded ovoid vases - used from Antiquity as beautiful and reverential receptacles for the ashes of the dead and later frequently appearing in the large carved funerary monuments of the 18th and 19th Centuries - was also often used as pure ornament, perhaps set in a corner niche or positioned on marble columns to either side of a fireplace, their shape appeared in architectural decoration such as friezes or balustrades and was a source of inspiration for many garden urns and ornaments.
A widespread and influential movement across all fine art and architecture, Neoclassicism first began to come to the fore around the middle of the 18th Century becoming hugely popular by the 1780s, and still being seen as a credible influence until well into the 19th Century. The movement was given great impetus by the contemporary archaeological discoveries made in Rome, especially the exploration and excavation of the buried cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii..
In Greek and Roman belief, The Three Fates represent the spirits believed to determine man’s destiny, standing for Birth, Life, and Death -in terms of the thread of life, Clotho spins, Lachesis draws out and Atropos cuts.
Funerary urns were often used a motif in mourning jewellery - the latter a tangible way of remembering and honouring the dead. Wills sometimes contained bequests instructing loved ones to purchase specially designed and inscribed rings or brooches to be worn after the testator's death. Samuel Pepys, the diarist, apparently left well over one hundred mourning rings when he died in 1703. Affordable and discreetly attractive, mourning rings, slides, lockets, brooches and pendants became more commonplace throughout the course of the 18th Century
At Nunnington Hall, North Yorkshire, owned by the National Trust, two items of mourning jewellery, a diamond and gold brooch and a gold ring, use the imagery of a funerary urn to emphasise their sombre role, each of the central ceramic plaques painted in sepia tones to depict a young woman in classical robes tending a fine funerary urn, ‘ Not Lost But Gone Before’
