William Hamilton

Etruscan Vase Designs: Numbers 127 [&] 129 Designs from The Medias Hydra

20 x 10.5 inches

In these designs we see two tableaux vivant of classical figures, one predominantly male and the other predominantly female, taken from possibly the most important Etruscan vase in the British Museum's collection. Plate 127 sees Herakles seated on his lion skin (second from left) with Iolaos to his right. The scene is set in the Garden of the Hesperides, who were tasked with protecting the golden apples, presumably from the snake entwined around the tree in the centre of the picture. Plate 129 shows 3 heroes of the Attic War to the left and then Oineus, Demophon and the Hesperid Chrysis to the right.

When Sir William Hamilton became British Envoy Extraordinary to the Bourbon Court of King Ferdinand IV in 1764 he travelled to Naples with his first wife Catherine to take up the appointment. Whilst in Italy he was able to indulge his passion for archaeology and classical artefacts. He amassed a large collection of Etruscan vases which were eventually shipped to the British Museum in London where they formed the basis for the Greek and Roman Galleries. This plate, with its faithful colouring, is a wonderful evocation of what drove Hamilton in his passion for the antique. We see the central figure of a seated lady attended by a male servant to her right and a maidservant to her left. So engrossed was he in his collection that he was to neglect his second wife, the infamous Emma Hamilton, who went on to have a very public affair with the top sea dog of the day, Horatio Nelson.