Hunting Vase
1550 - 1575.Room 079B
A vessel comprising three pieces of rock crystal. The body takes the form of an ancient urn of circular cross-section with two winged female busts, sculpted from the body itself, emerging by way of handles from a concave neck. It sits on a fluted base that, like the lid, has recently been identified. A complex scene occupying the central section of the body reflects a tableau typical of Milanese pieces, framed above and below by the same motif of concave lobes that extend to occupy the neck area. The same design extends to the base.
Angulo dubbed this urn the Vaso de la Montería (Hunting Vase), because the scene depicts a hunt in which tiny figures move around on foot and on horseback, dressed classically in tunics or military garb. They are accompanied by dogs and are hunting wildfowl, hares, a stag, a lion and a wild boar. Part of this scene seems to be inspired by the description of Meleager’s hunt in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. One of the figures, holding a lance from which a hare or rabbit is suspended, may be a reference to Hispania, the Roman name for Spain. The landscape depicted also matches the story of Ovid, who locates the action in a dense wood with flowing streams. Some of the figures have a notably military aspect, which could denote their status as classical heroes or indicate that the episode depicted is in fact a reference to military campaigns; transferred to the contemporary world, they may allude to battles against various types of enemy, infidels or heretics, led by Charles V or Philip II. It is perhaps no coincidence that, in addition to Theseus and the twins, Castor and Pollux, Jason also figures in the story about the wild boar hunt. It was Jason and his Argonauts – Meleager among them – who travelled in search of the golden fleece, the symbolic image that lends its name to the Order of the Golden Fleece, linked to the House of Hapsburg.
In 1929 Ernst Kris attributed this vessel to Francesco Tortorino (ca. 1512-1572), an artist specialising in carving cameos and crystal and renowned for the meticulous detail of his work, on the basis of two signed works completed around 1569, both now in Vienna. This attribution has been supported by subsequent experts and indeed the resemblance between this work and the Triumphal column, housed in the Museo degli Argenti in Florence, Inv. Gemme 1921, no. 723, has served to establish a definitive attribution of the vase to Tortorino. Certain details such as the trees, the ripples in the water, the handling of human hair and the manes of some of the animals are similar in both cases.
This is one of the pieces in the Dauphin’s Treasure, a group of precious vessels from the sumptuous collection of Louis, Grand Dauphin of France, which were brought to Spain by his son and heir, Philip V, the first Spanish monarch from the Bourbon dynasty. Louis of France (1661-1711), was the son of Louis XIV and Marie Theresa of Austria. Influenced by his father, he began collecting at an early age, acquiring his works in a variety of manners, including gifts and purchases at auctions. Following the Dauphin’s death, Philip V (1683-1746) inherited a group of vessels, which were sent to Spain with their respective cases. In 1716, they were at the Alcázar in Madrid but were later moved to La Granja de San Ildefonso, where they were listed in the so-called Casa de las Alajas following Philip V’s death. In 1776, they were deposited in the Royal Cabinet of Natural History at the behest of Charles III, and they remained there until it was sacked by French troops in 1813. These works were returned two years later, although some were lost. The Dauphin’s Treasure entered the Royal Museum in 1839, but was again stolen in 1918. During the Spanish Civil war, these works were sent to Switzerland. When they were returned in 1939, one vessel was missing. They have been on exhibit at the Villanueva Building since then.
