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Workshop: Domenego da Venezia
Maiolica pharmacy or storage jar, painted in polychrome with, on one side, a grotesque male head, and on the other side, a label inscribed `Mostarda FA'.
Earthenware, tin-glazed off-white on the exterior and interior; rim and base unglazed. Painted in bright dark blue, green, yellow, orange, manganese, black, and white. The yellow and orange stand up from the surface.
Albarello with wide flat rim, curving shoulders, and straight sides, sloping inwards diagonally above the projecting base.
On the front is a rectangular label inscribed `Mostarda FA' in black Gothic script, and on the other side, an oval scrolled frame enclosing a grotesque male head in profile to left. The rest of the main field and the shoulders are decorated with stylised flowers and scrolling foliage, reserved in a dark blue ground incised with coiling tendrils. On the neck, the shoulders and the edge of the base are yellow and blue horizontal bands with narrow orange bands over the former.
History note: Unknown.
C.B. Marlay Bequest
Height: 37.8 cm
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1912) by Marlay, Charles Brinsley
16th Century, third quarter#
Circa
1560
CE
-
1570
CE
Label text from the exhibition ‘Feast and Fast: The Art of Food in Europe, 1500–1800’, on display at The Fitzwilliam Museum from 26 November 2019 until 31 August 2020: Pair of storage jars for mostarda fina (fruit pickle) Storage containers for preserved food often had substantial capacity like this vibrant pair for ‘Mostarda f[in]a’, a fruit pickle or sauce for culinary and medicinal purposes. Recipes usually included a purée of quinces, pears, or apples, to which chopped candied fruit, sugar, mustard, spices, and salt were added, before cooking and thickening in cooked must (‘mosto cotto’ made from boiled down grape juice) whose high sugar content and acidity made it an excellent preservative. Combined with mustard seeds that have powerful anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties, it was a highly effective way of preserving fruit – still in use today, especially in north Italy.
The jar held Mostarda Fina, which means either fine mustard or a fruit pickle or sauce, known as mostarda. While mustard was possibly the contents of some jars, it seems more likely that the majority of large jars held fruit pickle. Most large jars of this type which have labels are inscribed Mostarda, and if all were filled with mustard, it would be necessary to explain why Venetians were consuming such vast quantities for culinary and medicinal purposes in comparison with citizens of other Italian towns. For another jar paired with this see MAR.C.68B-1912.
Decoration
composed of
high-temperature colours
( bright dark blue, green, yellow, orange, manganese, black, and white)
Base
Diameter 19.4 cm
Rim
Diameter 19.8 cm
Widest Part
Width 28.5 cm
except rim and base
Tin-glaze
Earthenware
Tin-glazing : Earthenware, tin-glazed off-white on the exterior and interior; rim and base unglazed. Painted in bright dark blue, green, yellow, orange, manganese, black, and white. The yellow and orange stand up from the surface.
Inscription present: in a rectangular label
Inscription present: rectangular with cut corners and blue printed border
Accession number: MAR.C.68A-1912
Primary reference Number: 77387
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Pharmacy jar" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/77387 Accessed: 2024-12-22 12:58:56
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/77387
|title=Pharmacy jar
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-22 12:58:56|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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<div class="text-center">
<figure class="figure">
<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa5/MAR_C_68A_1912_281_29.jpg"
alt="Pharmacy jar"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Pharmacy jar</figcaption>
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