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

4-OE Detail of [.2].^40 F Underside of [.2].

The Cozzi artist or artists who painted these vases

drew upon contemporary print sources for their principal

scenes.^10 The scene of the river town conflates two prints

of similar subjects—one of a town with a clock tower,

the other with longshoremen, ships, and distant ma­

rina—designed by Marco Ricci (1676-1729) and en­

graved by Giuliano Giampiccoli (1703-1759), Ricci's

son-in-law, and published in 175 0 (figs. 40 G —H).^11 The

view of the Piazzetta di San Marco reproduces a print

by Francesco Zucchi (1692-1764) published in 1740

(fig. 401).^12 The ships in the foreground of the Zucchi

print have been shifted, apparently to conform to the

shape of the vase, yet the distant view of the piazzetta is

reproduced with delicate precision. The figure of Venice

appears to derive from the figure in a colophon of the

Venetian publisher Giovanni Battista Albrizzi (1698-

1777. (fig. 4OJ).^13 A source for the Neptune has yet to be

identified. God of the sea and personification of the Adri­

atic, he is shown triumphant, accompanied by the sea's

riches. Opposite him, an invented landscape, or capric-

cio, illustrates a typical and picturesque river town of

the Veneto. Venice—personification of a republic whose

power was based on control of the Adriatic—is likewise

shown triumphant, accompanied by her attributes of

power and authority. Opposite her, the cityscape of the

Piazzetta di San Marco supplies a quintessential view, at

once scenographic and descriptive, of the political and

cultural heart of the Republic. The pairing of Venice and

Neptune—female and male, land and sea—was a com­

mon theme in Venetian cultural and political life,- in­

deed, the ultimate expression of Venetian state liturgy

was Venice's "marriage to the Sea." On this yearly occa­

sion the doge would ride his ceremonial barge into the la­

goon, and with the words "We espouse thee, o sea, as a

sign of true and perpetual dominion," he would throw a

gold wedding ring into the water. In marrying the sea, ac­

cording to Venetian law, the "husband," or doge, repre­

senting the city of Venice would establish legitimate

rights over his "wife" the sea, represented by Neptune,

in this way supporting the doge's claim to sovereignty

over trade routes.^14

Although this proposed political schema of the vases

celebrates the Veneto's urban and rural settings as well as

the Republic's imperial and mercantile prerogatives,

Two Vases 235