Drug Jar thumbnail 1
Drug Jar thumbnail 2
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Ceramics, Room 137, The Curtain Foundation Gallery

Drug Jar

ca. 1475 (made)
Artist/Maker
Unknown
Place of origin
Naples (made)

Vase of tin-glazed earthenware and painted in colours with a woman's head in profile.


Object details

Categories
Ceramics
Maiolica
Earthenware
Object type
Drug jar
Materials and techniques
Tin-glazed earthenware, painted
Earthenware
Tin Glaze
Tin Glazing
Painting
Brief description
Vase of tin-glazed earthenware and painted in colours, Naples, ca. 1475.
Physical description
Vase of tin-glazed earthenware and painted in colours with a woman's head in profile.
Dimensions
  • Height: 34.5cm
  • Diameter: 15.5cm
Gallery label
Drug jar depicting Portrait of a woman, probably Eleanor of Aragon. Made in Naples, Italy About 1475 Tin-glazed earthenware 245-1894(16/07/2008)
Object history
Bought from Cav. Attilo Simonetti, Via Reale, Palazzo Odescalchi, Rome, for £30 1s 6d.
Production
J Mallet
Naples (not Castello sforzesco as in label), about 1475.

Both portrait and ornament at the back are very similar to a jar of squatter form ill. by Von Falke, Sammlung Reitard Zachike, Tafel 3, Figs, 4a & b.

Cora, 1975, the portrait is identified (questionably) as that of Eleonor of Aragona

Donatone, 1993, Royal factory of Castelnuovo, about 1473, "Master of the Cappella del Brancaccio" Probably portrait of Eleanor of Aragon in the year of her wedding to Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara. Similar iconography in a piece in the Zschille Collection, Leipzig.
Subject depicted
Eleanor of Aragon
Bibliographic references
  • Cora, G. Storia della maiolica di Firenze e del contado: Secoli xiv e xv. Firenze, 1973. n. 212-216.
  • Donatone, G. La Maiolica napoletana del Rinascimento. Napoli, 1993. tavg,114.
  • Rackham, Bernard. Catalogue of Italian Maiolica, London : H.M.S.O., 1977
Other number
119 - Rackham (1977)
Collection
Ceramics Collection
Accession number
245-1894

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Record createdJuly 16, 2008
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O159900/drug-jar-unknown/
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