Renaissance bronze mortar with a lizard

An image of Metalwork. Mortar with Lizard. Unknown maker, Venice. The mortar is of inverted bell-shape, standing on a low, moulded foot. On one side there is a handle in the shape of a lizard, whose tail curls round the mortar behind it. The lower part of the mortar is decorated with acanthus leaves, the tips of which extend over a filet running round the body. Above there is a band of scrolls, inverted anthemions and suspended fruits. The everted lip of the mortar is decorated with a series of mouldings. Bronze, cast, height, whole, 14.5 cm, diameter, base, 10.4 cm, diameter, lip, 15.5 cm, circa 1500-1530. Renaissance.

Terms of use

These images are provided for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND). To license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who will discuss fees, terms and waivers.

Download this image

Creative commons explained - what it means, how you can use our's and other people's content.

Metalwork. Mortar with Lizard. Unknown maker, Venice. The mortar is of inverted bell-shape, standing on a low, moulded foot. On one side there is a handle in the shape of a lizard, whose tail curls round the mortar behind it. The lower part of the mortar is decorated with acanthus leaves, the tips of which extend over a filet running round the body. Above there is a band of scrolls, inverted anthemions and suspended fruits. The everted lip of the mortar is decorated with a series of mouldings. Bronze, cast, height, whole, 14.5 cm, diameter, base, 10.4 cm, diameter, lip, 15.5 cm, circa 1500-1530. Renaissance.

Image data

Accession Number: M.18-1979
Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Aperture: f/27.0
Focal length: 120
Camera: Hasselblad H3DII-31
Photographer name: Jaymes Sinclair
Image height: 1007 pixels
Image width: 1024 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.6 (Macintosh)
Filesize: 182.09kB
Exposure time: 1/60
ISO Speed: 100
Fnumber: 27/1

Key words

16th Century Artistic Movement Date Department Fitz_AA Italian Material Nationalities Object Type Other Keywords Renaissance Venetian School Workflow _WF_AdOK _WF_KWD _WF_OPACtd _WF_PCtd acanthus amphibian bronze cast fruits handle handled lizards mortar moulded mouldings

Citation for print

This page can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:


            The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024)
            "Renaissance bronze mortar with a lizard"
            Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-553927612 Accessed: 2024-11-22 14:44:18

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this page on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:


            {{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-553927612
            |title=Renaissance bronze mortar with a lizard
            |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-22 14:44:18|publisher=The
            University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/images/media-187391

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa30/M_18_1979_1_201406_jas244_mas.jpg"
        alt="Mortar with Lizard"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Renaissance bronze mortar with a lizard</figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>