Italian Ceramics: Catalogue of the J. Paul Getty Museum Collection

40

Vase with Neptune and

Vase with an Allegory of

Venice

Factory of Geminiano Cozzi

(active 1764-1812)

Venice

1769

Hybrid soft-paste porcelain

[.1] H: 30 cm (11^13 /i6 in.)

Diam: 26.7 cm (10V2 in.)

[.2] H: 29.8 cm (n^3 /4 in.)

Diam: 27.3 cm (io^3 /4 in.)

88.DE.9.1-.2

MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS

[.2] On one side, inscribed, Primo Esperimento

in Grande fatto li 15 Maggio 1769 Nella

Privil[egiata] fabbrica di Geminiano Cozzi in

Canalregio; on the other side the Cozzi factory

mark, an anchor.

CONDITION

Several hairline cracks and two large firing cracks

through the underside. A portion of the inscribed

mark underwent repair and has been overpainted.

PROVENANCE

Centanini collection, Venice, by 1889; private col­

lection, Budapest, until the end of the 1930s and

then stored in Switzerland during World War II;

recovered by the owners after World War II and

brought to Rome; by inheritance in the same fam­

ily, Rome, sold to E. de Unger, 1988; [Edmund

de Unger, The Manor House, Surrey, England, sold

to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1988].

EXHIBITIONS

Arte ceramica e vetraria, Museo Artistico-

Industriale, Rome, 1889 (Gheltof 1889).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gheltof 1889, 151; Molfino 1976, 27; Stazzi 1982,

53 ; GettyMusJ 17 (1989): 146, no. 85; Battie 1990,

102; Hess 1990B, 141-56; Summary Catalogue

1993 , 213, no. 369; Museum Handbook 2001,

266-67; Summary Catalogue 2001, no. 378.

THE BROAD, OVOID BODIES OF THESE VASES taper to

low rims that would have been surmounted by lids, now

lost,^1 in imitation of Eastern or Eastern-influenced forms

such as potiches^2 from China or baluster vases from the

German Meissen factory. That their forms are not the

most elegant is understandable, given the exigencies of

working in the medium on such a large scale.^3 Their

painted decoration, however, is executed with a delicate

mastery. One vase displays the figure of Neptune holding

his trident and riding a throne pulled by dolphins. Two

Nereids flank him, offering plates or baskets of riches.

Four putti cavort above him, one of whom holds aloft

Neptune's drapery, which elegantly encircles the god's

crowned and bearded head. The other side is painted

with a river town landscape with a clock tower and a

foreground scene of longshoremen at work (fig. 40A). An

undulating rocaille border surrounds the rim, while a

sawtooth pattern rings the base.^4 Butterflies, delicate

bunches of fruit and flowers, and swags of rocaille ele­

ments fill in the remainder of the surface (fig. 40B).

The allegorical figure of Venice ornaments the sec­

ond vase. She is shown with her traditional attributes:

regal ermine cape and scepter, corno hat (worn by the

Venetian doge during public ceremonies), and recumbent

lion.^5 A male nude kneels below, facing her. Beside him

projects a staff resembling a trident or caduceus. These

40 A Alternate view of [.1 ].

OPPOSITE: 40 [.1]

230