The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 25, 2022

Pharmacy Jar (Albarello)

c. 1510

Italy, Siena, 16th century

Tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)

Overall: 22.6 cm (8 7/8 in.)

Gift of the Twentieth Century Club 1965.553

Location

118 Italian Renaissance

Fun Fact

The scroll along the bottom reads DIA IRIS, indicating that it may have once held a medicinal iris compound.

Description

Storage jars that lined the shelves of Renaissance pharmacies often held medicinal herbs, spices, and ointments. Their shape made them easy to grasp while the flared lip allowed apothecaries to seal off the contents with parchment or cloth secured by a string. This particular storage jar depicts a child riding a wild boar.

Inscriptions

Inscription

located above foot of jar: DIA-IRIS.

Provenance
(Charles Damiron, Lyon).
Citations
Damiron, Charles. Majoliques italiennes. [Place of publication not identified]: [publisher not identified], 1944. plate no. 50
Damiron, Charles. Majoliques Italiennes. N.p., 1944. Reproduced plate 50 library.clevelandart.org
Wixom, William and Henry H. Hawley. "Annual Report for 1965." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 53, no. 6 (June 1966): 137-71. Reproduced P 147 www.jstor.org
Lee, Sherman E. "Golden Anniversary Acquisitions: September 10 through October 16." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 53, no. 7 (September 1966): 181-284. Reproduced P 278, cat. no. 32 www.jstor.org
Keith, D. Graeme, and Charles Avery. The Triumph of Humanism: A Visual Survey of the Decorative Arts of the Renaissance. San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1977. Mentioned & reproduced cat. no. 162 library.clevelandart.org
Exhibition history

The Triumph of Humanism. Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, California (October 22, 1977-January 8, 1978).

The Triumph of Humanism. Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA (organizer) (October 22, 1977-January 9, 1978).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1965.553