Pharmacy Jar
A 14th-century Spanish pharmacy jar painted in green and brown with a figure and vines: a simple brush-painted figure on tin-glazed earthenware. Full commentary ↓
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Pharmacy Jar is a ceramic object by an unknown maker (14th century) in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It measures 23.5 × 9.5 cm.
In the pictureOn the outside of a cylindrical earthenware jar, a person with long hair in a striped garment stands with a finger raised, surrounded by twining vines with green leaves. Green bands circle the top and bottom, and the white glaze is finely crazed. It is 24 cm high.
BackgroundJars like this, slightly waisted in the middle, held herbs and ointments in pharmacies; they were made to stand in rows on shelves and to be easy to grip. Painting only in copper (green) and manganese (brown) over white tin glaze is a feature of the pottery of Paterna in the Valencia region, so this jar is also thought to come from there. The figure's clothing and gesture are traces of the mingling of Islamic and Christian cultures in Spain at the time.
Puzzle tipWith only green and brown on white, sorting by color is easy, but there are many white pieces. Fit the figure's face, the striped garment and the green leaf pieces first, then make the border with the band pieces at top and bottom. Judge the positions of the white pieces by the crazing in the glaze and the shadows on the jar's curved surface. 48 pieces works well.
- Culture
- Spanish
- Classification
- Ceramics-Vessels
- Medium
- Tin glazed earthenware (copper and manganese oxides)
- Dimensions
- 23.5 × 9.5 cm
- Credit line
- Bequest of Nanette B. Kelekian, 2020
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ↗
Stories about this work
- A Thousand Years From One Collector: Five Objects From the Kelekian Bequest
From 6th-century Byzantine ivory to 16th-century Flemish boxwood carving. Crossing a thousand years with five objects one collector left to the museum in 2020.
