2-979-518 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Darius Vase, found at Canosa, 1857. 'This exquisite work of antique art is of the form of the Apulian Amphora, and is the largest that has ever been discovered. It is made of the finest earth, and for its historical subject...is perfectly unique. Just under the neck of the vase is described the combat of the Greeks with the Amazons. Then follows a representation of the principal subject of the vase, the war of the East against the West - of civilisation against barbarism...The design and the composition are of the most beautiful epoch of Magna Graecia. It was found during an excavation made by the Cav. Carlo Bonucci, Inspector-General of the Monuments of the Kingdom of Naples, in the Necropolis of Canosa...[it is] the most remarkable in the world, forms one of the brightest ornaments of the Museo Borbonico...and...has never before been published'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.