Plate 10: Lidded Vase With a Handle in the Shape of a Griffin and A Frieze With Draped Dancing Figures, from Antique Vases (Vasa a Polydoro Caravagino’) 1605

Editor: So, this is "Plate 10: Lidded Vase With a Handle in the Shape of a Griffin..." Quite a mouthful, created around 1605 by Aegidius Sadeler II. It's an engraving, a print, so we're seeing a meticulously rendered object. I find it imposing; that vase feels incredibly ornate and heavy, like it belongs in a king's treasury. What captures your attention most about it? Curator: You know, seeing this vase – or rather, Sadeler’s version of it – my mind wanders. It reminds me of dreams spun from marble and myth. Think about it: a griffin handle! As if your everyday vase needs a touch of mythical guardian. What was the culture surrounding it, or those seeing these prints like? Maybe they saw the echo of the grand classical past. Are they aspiring towards the heights of antiquity with such ornamentation, like imagining their rooms filled with treasures from faraway lands, wouldn't you think? Editor: That makes me think about the figures carved on the body of the vase—the draped figures, almost dancing. Is there a story there, or are they simply decorative? Curator: Perhaps both. Mannerism, you see, revels in ambiguity, in the tension between form and content. Those figures, poised in elegant contrapposto, could be nymphs, muses, participants in some forgotten rite. The beauty isn’t in knowing the story, but in inventing your own! What are they celebrating, perhaps, or fleeing from, what could it all be leading up to? Editor: That's a lovely idea. It goes back to its own unique timeless quality, its aura if you will, so different than vases of today. Curator: Indeed, there is such unique spirit, wouldn't you agree?