Borghese vase 1790 - 1800

This bronze Borghese Vase was crafted by Giovanni Zoffoli in Rome, likely in the second half of the 18th century. It reimagines an ancient marble vase discovered in the ruins of the Gardens of Sallust, and later housed in the Villa Borghese, near Rome. Vases like these were originally status symbols, displayed in aristocratic homes to suggest wealth and refined taste. But the proliferation of copies and reproductions in bronze and other media made the vase newly accessible to a wider audience. It reflects a growing interest in classical antiquity among the educated middle classes of the period. The Borghese Vase, whether ancient or Neoclassical, is a testament to the power of art to transcend its original context. It is a source of information about the shifting social and economic conditions in which art is produced and consumed. To fully understand it, historians look to a range of sources, from auction records to inventories of aristocratic collections, to reveal the vase's social life across centuries.