XX 



The Barberini or Portland Vase 261 



This world-renowned Barberini vase was the identical 

 urn in which the ashes of the Eoman Emperor 

 Alexander Severus and his mother Julia Mammsea 

 were deposited. It was placed under the monument on 

 Monte del Grano about 235 years after Christ, and it 

 was dug up by order of Pope Barberini, or Urban VIII., 

 between the years 1623 and 1644. The materials of 

 which the vase is composed resemble an Agate some 

 say an Onyx. The ground of the vase is of a rich 

 transparent, dark amethystine colour, and the Bas-relief 

 white figures which adorn it are of the most exquisite 

 workmanship. The vase is 9f inches high, 7j inches in 

 diameter, and 2 If inches in circumference ; and has two 

 handles. 



The probability is, that the artistic manufacture of 

 the vase was much more ancient than the date of its 

 interment at Monte del Grano. The Emperor Alexander 

 Severus was an enthusiastic collector of the finest 

 specimens of ancient Greek art, and he desired that at 

 the time of his death his ashes should be deposited in 

 one of the finest of the Greek urns. The figures engraved 

 in bas-relief on the urn in question have no reference 

 to the life or deeds of the Emperor. 



There is Leda with the swan, before her Jupiter, a 

 Cupid holding a bow, and on the outside of the bottom 

 of the vase is a man (supposed to be Paris) with a 

 Phrygian bonnet. This seems to have no connection 

 with the Emperor's history, or of his mother Mammsea. 

 Some think it is a satire upon the vices of Heliogabalus ; 



