Suite of Vases: Plate 22 (1746): Art, History and Details

Suite of Vases: Plate 22 (1746) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Jacques François Saly (French, 1717–1776).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: Suite of Vases: Plate 22
• Date: 1746
• Creator attribution: Jacques François Saly (French, 1717–1776)
• Culture: France
• Type: Print
• Technique: etching
• Collection: PR - Etching
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1996.229.23

A detail from the museum

The shape of this vase mimics the ancient Greek krater, a vessel that was used for mixing wine with water.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.