Pharmacy jar: MAR.C.68B-1912

Maker(s)

Workshop: Domenego da Venezia (Probably)

Entities

• Pharmacy jar
• storage jar

Categories

• Tin-glazed earthenware
• Maiolica

Description

Maiolica pharmacy or storage jar, painted in polychrome with, on one side, a bust of a young man, and on the other, a rectangular label inscribed `Mostarda FA'.

Earthenware, tin-glazed on the exterior and interior; rim and base unglazed. The glaze inside is thinly applied. Painted in bright dark blue, green, greenish-grey, yellow, brownish-orange, manganese, and white. The yellow, orange, and white stand up from the surface. Albarello with wide flat rim, short neck, sloping shoulders, and slightly bowed sides, sloping inwards in a concave curve to the projecting base.
On the front is a rectangular label inscribed `Mostarda FA' in blue gothic script, and framed by scrolls with a face at bottom centre. On the other side, within an oval scrolled frame, is a bust of a young man in profile to left, wearing a doublet, ruff and a soft rounded hat. The rest of the main field is decorated with stylised flowers, fruits, acorns and scrolling foliage, reserved in a blue ground incised with coiling tendrils. There are blue and yellow horizontal bands round the neck and blue, orange, and yellow bands above the edge of the base.

Notes

History note: Unknown before C.B. Marlay

Legal notes

C.B. Marlay Bequest

Place(s) associated

• Venice ⪼ The Veneto ⪼ Italy

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1912) by Marlay, Charles Brinsley

Dating

16th Century, third quarter#
Renaissance
Circa 1560 CE - 1570 CE

Note

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, a fruit pickle or sauce. While mustard was possibly the contents of some jars, it seems more likely that the majority of large jars held fruit pickle. The essential ingredient was cooked must (mosto cotto), freshly pressed grape juice which was boiled and reduced until it became thick and black, almost like molasses. Its sugar level and acidity made it an excellent preservative for the fruit content, particularly when combined with mustard seeds (semi di senape). Modern Venetian recipes usually include a purée of quinces, or other fruit, such as pears and apples, cooked in white wine, to which are added chopped candied fruit, sugar, mustard, spices and salt. This mixture is cooked until it becomes very thick before being put into containers. It is still made in the Veneto.

School or Style

Renaissance