An Important Grand Tour Urn in Breccia di Sciro Marble

An Important Grand Tour Urn in Breccia di Sciro Marble

Rome, Early 19th Century

Of exceptional quality and finely carved from a single block breccia di Sciro, this sculptural urn is a rare survival of early 19th-century Grand Tour craftsmanship.

Lobed Campana form, classically proportioned and crisply gadrooned, rests upon a fine fluted socle and ebonised base, carefully executed to a standard seldom encountered in portable marble works of this type.

Breccia di Sciro, also referred to in antiquity as marmor africanum was among the most coveted decorative stones of the Roman world. Its extraordinary veining made it a favourite of emperors and architects alike, extensively employed in the palaces of the Palatine Hill, the Domus Aurea, and the great thermae of imperial Rome. Its use was both a symbol of wealth and a testament to Rome’s reach across the Mediterranean. Later revived by the Medici for their pietra dura workshops, it remained a mark of opulence into the 18th and 19th centuries.

22 cm wide x 17 cm high
Rome c.1800–1830