Decorative Urn, Kenwood House

This funerary urn, after designs by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, was once in the collection of the banker, philosopher, author and art collector Thomas Hope (1769 –1831) and was illustrated in his 1807 publication Household Furniture and Interior Decoration.

The architect and designer Piranesi was one of the most influential figures in Rome in the mid 18th century. He is most famed as an etcher and engraver. His series of etchings of real and imaginary architectural settings were a great influence on British artists, designers and patrons in the mid 18th century. In 1778, Piranesi published a compendium of vases, candelabrum, grave stones, funerary urns and sarcophagi.

This vase or vasi was possibly produced in Piranesi’s workshop in the 1770s. The combination of classical motifs, including acanthus leaves, rosettes and gadrooning and the elegant shape derived from ancient Roman funerary urns was intended to appeal to European Grand Tourists, particularly the British, many of whom took home large quantities of antique and modern statues, busts and vases. David Murray, Viscount Stormont, later the 2nd Earl of Mansfield made purchases of similar antique and classically inspired sculpture in 1779.

Robert Adam became acquainted with Piranesi while in Rome in the mid 1750s, at the moment when Neo-Classicism was beginning to flower, and their correspondence continued for the next twenty years. As both a continuing influence and a formative one, Piranesi played a pivotal role in the development of Adam’s style.

Overlooking London’s Hampstead Heath since the early 17th century, Kenwood House was transformed in the 18th century into a grand neoclassical villa. Now restored to its Georgian splendour, Kenwood is home to a world-famous art collection.