Barbedienne Bronze Jardiniere Planter After the Borghese Vase by Zoffoli

Our client's tremendous, nineteenth century patinated bronze jardiniere after the original Borghese vase by Giovanni Zoffoli  (c1785-1845) was cast by Barbedienne in the third or fourth quarter of the nineteenth century.  22 1/2 inches tall and 20 3/4 inches across.  The work is distinguished by its four satyr masks and two thyrsi, staffs or spears tipped with ornamental pinecones and hung with goatskins, which were commonly carried by the followers of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, fertility and agriculture, equivalent to the the Greek, Dionysus.  With its original liner.  Inscribed F. BARBEDIENNE FONDEUR for Ferdinand Barbedienne (1810-1892) of Paris.  An original cast by Zoffoli resides in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  This rare design is the only one we have seen in our 21 years in business.

The artist worked for Giacomo Zoffoli (his brother or nephew), a Roman silversmith and bronze founder who built a successful business producing reductions after antique sculptures for those making the Grand Tour.  Known as the Borghese Vase, this model was in the smaller of two antique vases in the collection of the Borghese family, then in Rome but now in the Louvre, having been bought by Napoleon from his brother-in-law Camillo Borghese in 1807.

( Greek Roman Greco-Roman neoclassical Bacchanale)