Urn decorated with dolphins from the Altieri Collection

The drawing shows an ancient urn, now lost, that once belonged to the important collection of the Altieri family in Rome. The imaginative details are rendered with the plasticity of sculpture: vigorous leaves enclose the lower part of the vessel, while in a cunning design the handle is formed by a bulging acanthus leaf, centre, flanked by two dolphins, tails curling dramatically, facing away from each other. The dextrous and fluid execution points to a skilled hand that required just a few fixed points from which to construct this symmetrically laid out view.