Warwick Vase

THE WARWICK VASE

THE WARWICK VASE was purchased by George, second Earl of Warwick, from his uncle, Sir William Hamilton. The inscription on the pedestal informs us that: –

“This monument of ancient art and Roman splendour was dug out of the ruins of the Tibertine Villa, the favourite retreat of Hadrian Augustus. It was restored by the order of Sir William Hamilton, Ambassador from George III, King of Great Britain, to Ferdinand IV, King of Sicily, who sent it home.”

The Vase was found in I770, during excavations carried on in the bed of a small lake at Hadrian’s Villa, near Tivoli, sixteen miles from Rome. The Villa was finished about 138 A.D., but this work is of an earlier date and is attributed to Lysippus, of Sicyon, a Greek Artist of the close of the 4th Century, B.A.

The Vase is of White Marble, is circular in form, and capable of holding 163 gallons. It is 5ft-6ins high and 5ft-8in in diameter at the lip, and is placed on a square pedestal of modern construction. The Heads ranged round the body of the Vase are with the exception of one, those of Selini, or male attendants of Bacchus, the single exception being a female head of Bacchante or Faun. Between the heads are Thyrsii or Bacchi staves twined round with Ivy and Vine shoots and Litui, or Augural Wands, used in taking Omens.

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