  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
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  Life Dates
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  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.
  
  
  
  
  Spanish
  
  
  Medium
  Tin-glazed earthenware with cobalt and luster
  
  
  Dimensions
  Overall: 4 1/8 × 10 7/8 × 5 1/4 inches (10.5 × 27.6 × 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.
  
  
  
  63.359
  
  
  Copyright
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