Pharmacy Jar

1440-1480

On View

Islamic, Level 1, North Wing

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About the Artwork

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Markings

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Provenance

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Exhibition History

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Published References

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Catalogue Raisonné

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Credit Line for Reproduction

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About the Artwork

Imagine this tall, glistening vessel as one of many lining an apothecary’s shelves. A busy pharmacist could easily grab it around its tapered middle. Sealed with a piece of parchment or cloth tied around the top, it may have contained herbs, spices, preserves, or other foods believed to have medicinal properties.
First produced in the Middle East, such pharmacy jars, also called albarellos, were widely exported to Europe — possibly for their contents, or because they were admired as luxury ceramics, or for both these reasons. Potters in Spain reproduced the shape and gave it a lustrous sheen, using techniques that also originated with Islamic makers.
Invented in the 800s in Iraq, the methods of lusterware production traveled with ceramic artists across the Middle East, North Africa, and Islamic Spain. By the 1400s, Manises, where this jar was made, was a premier center of Spanish lusterware production. Painting the tin-glazed vessel with both cobalt and metal oxides, the artist covered the surface with a shimmering ivy pattern — one of the most popular designs for Manises ceramics.

Title Pharmacy Jar

Artwork Date 1440-1480

Artist ----------

Life Dates ----------

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. Spanish

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Tin-glazed earthenware with cobalt and luster

Dimensions Overall: 4 × 11 3/4 × 5 1/4 inches (10.2 × 29.8 × 13.3 cm)

Classification Ceramics

Department European Sculpture and Dec Arts

Credit Gift of K. T. Keller

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 63.358

Markings

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Provenance

private collection (Seville, Spain);
George Blumenthal [1858-1941] (New York, New York, USA);
by descent to his his nephew, Walter Blumenthal (New York, New York, USA);
(French and Co., New York, New York, USA);
1944, purchased by K.T. Keller [1885-1966] (Detroit, Michigan, USA);
1963-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

Komaroff, Linda, ed. Dining with the Sultan: The Fine Art of Feasting. Exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles and New York, 2023, pp. 286-287, cat. no. 100b (ill.).

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