1746
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Suite of Vases: Plate 14 is a 1746 by Jacques François Saly, a Baroque work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a single, tall vase covered in writhing figures—satyrs, maenads, and grinning masks. Saly never meant this vase to be made. It’s one of thirty etchings he drew while studying in Rome, all imaginary designs. The wild mix of myth and decoration fed a Paris craze for classical revival in furniture and silver. If you like this playful energy, look up *sfumato*.
Jacques François Joseph Saly created an etched suite of 30 imaginary vase designs while studying in Rome. Throughout the series, he let his skill and imagination run wild on the theme of bacchants by inventively incorporating animals, satyrs, and maenads—as well as faces and grotesques (fantastic figures and beasts)—into various designs. Published in Paris, the series nourished an appetite for the revival of mythological and classical elements in decorative arts, and may have also inspired Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s suite of bacchanalia images.
The voluptuous two-tailed mermaid figure in the center of this design may be a nereid. As the undine daughters of Neptune, nereids were often part of Bacchus's entourage in classical mythology.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Jacques François Joseph Saly, also known as Jacques Saly (20 June 1717 – 4 May 1776), French-born sculptor who worked in France, Italy and Malta.
See the richer artist page
