A large cast iron "Medici" style krater vase. - image-1
A large cast iron "Medici" style krater vase. - image-2
A large cast iron "Medici" style krater vase. - image-1A large cast iron "Medici" style krater vase. - image-2

Lot 185 Dα

A large cast iron "Medici" style krater vase.

Auction 1047 - overview Cologne
02.05.2015, 11:00 - The Berlin Sale
Estimate: 3.000 € - 4.000 €
Result: 3.720 € (incl. premium)
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A large cast iron "Medici" style krater vase.

Cast in various parts and connected, the base filled with wood. The figural reliefs to the body of the Medici vase are today interpreted as Homer's heroic figures consulting an oracle. H 48.5, D 37 cm.
Attributed to the Prussian Iron Foundries, 19th C.

The original white marble vase was created in Athens for the Roman market in around 100 BC. It was formerly owned by the Medici family but is now kept in the Uffizi museum in Florence. The vase design became highly popular through copperplate engravings made by Francesco Piranesi after drawings by his father Giovanni, which he published in 1778, the year of his father's death, under the title "Vasi candelabri cippi sarcofagi tripodi lvcerne ed ornamenti antichi".

Literature

Cf. Arenhövel, Eisen statt Gold, Berlin 1982, no. 394, an example owned by the Order of Saint John in Berlin.