.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Faint ink numerals 3589 to underside
This spouted jar is part of a group of pharmacy bottles, albarelli and spouted jars which were originally thought to have come from one pharmacy in Rome, but which are now thought to have come from more than one pharmacy.
Although the association of jars of this type is actually with the Orsini family,1 they have come to be called 'Orsini-Colonna' type after Bernard Rackham used the term in relation to the two-handled pharmacy bottle in the British Museum2 which shows the Orsini bear embracing the Colonna column, accompanied by the inscription 'and we shall be good friends'.3 The Orsini family were the feudal Lords of Castelli until 1526, but it has only recently been discovered that these jars were made at Castelli.
Excavations at the site of the Pompei workshop in Castelli in the 1980s uncovered a large quantity of fragments of kiln waste which relate to the 'Orsini-Colonna' type jars. Comparison with ceiling tiles in the local church of San Donato showed further similarities, and in combination it demonstrated that most, if not all, jars of this type were made at Castelli. Two dated panels, which are also related to the 'Orsini-Colonna' type jars have contributed to the stylistic dating of the jars. Vincenzo de Pompeis analysed elements of the decoration and proposed a stylistic chronology of the 'Orsini-Colonna' jars.4 The blue palmettes on the present jar, with the central blade-like shapes, and the monochrome blue scene are both characteristics of the first, and earliest, group.
1. Three pieces have the Orsini arms. For the Lehman Collection example, see Jörg Rasmussen, Robert Lehman Collection X Italian Majolica, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1989, pp. 88-89, no. 51.
2. Dora Thornton and Timothy Wilson, Italian Renaissance Ceramics, A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, London, 2009, Vol. II, pp. 540-544, no. 338.
3. This refers to the Pax Romana arranged in 1511 by Pope Julius II between the two rival Roman aristocratic families who had been constantly feuding.
4. Pescara Exhibition Catalogue cited above, pp. 75-108.
This spouted jar is part of a group of pharmacy bottles, albarelli and spouted jars which were originally thought to have come from one pharmacy in Rome, but which are now thought to have come from more than one pharmacy.
Although the association of jars of this type is actually with the Orsini family,
Excavations at the site of the Pompei workshop in Castelli in the 1980s uncovered a large quantity of fragments of kiln waste which relate to the 'Orsini-Colonna' type jars. Comparison with ceiling tiles in the local church of San Donato showed further similarities, and in combination it demonstrated that most, if not all, jars of this type were made at Castelli. Two dated panels, which are also related to the 'Orsini-Colonna' type jars have contributed to the stylistic dating of the jars. Vincenzo de Pompeis analysed elements of the decoration and proposed a stylistic chronology of the 'Orsini-Colonna' jars.
1. Three pieces have the Orsini arms. For the Lehman Collection example, see Jörg Rasmussen, Robert Lehman Collection X Italian Majolica, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1989, pp. 88-89, no. 51.
2. Dora Thornton and Timothy Wilson, Italian Renaissance Ceramics, A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, London, 2009, Vol. II, pp. 540-544, no. 338.
3. This refers to the Pax Romana arranged in 1511 by Pope Julius II between the two rival Roman aristocratic families who had been constantly feuding.
4. Pescara Exhibition Catalogue cited above, pp. 75-108.