Italian, Deruta, circa 1516-1520

Sotheby's London, 15 July 2004, lot 2;

Where acquired.

These bottles form part of an imposing group, perhaps all part of a set from a single pharmacy commission, which may have been one of the most ambitious of its period. All the pharmacy jars in this set are bottle-shaped and every bottle is centered on the front with heroic figures with muscular physiques. The subjects are mythological, biblical, allegorical and from ancient history.

All the bottles of the series have inscriptions beginning with the letter A (Acqua in english “water”) indicating that they were for water-based pharmaceutical preparations. Among those known, seven bottles are in the Louvre (Giacomotti, op. cit, 1074, nos. 481-487), two are in the Princeton University Art Museum and at least nine others have passed through the art trade or have been noted in private collections. 

A similar bottle in a private collection is published by T. Wilson (2018, op. cit., fig. 9, p.66) and that figure derives from an engraving by Agostino Veneziano after Raphael’s design for the figure of Alcibiades in the School of Athens in the Vatican. Agostino Veneziano arrived in Rome and began to work for Raphael in 1516, which is a terminus post quem for the series. 

RELATED LITERATURE

T. Wilson, The Golden Age of Italian Maiolica Painting Catalogue of a private collection, Turin, 2018, n° 21, pp. 66-67 ;

B. Rackham, Victoria and Albert Museum, Catalogue of Italian Maiolica, Londres, 1977, p. 397, pl. 64 ;

J. Giacomotti, Catalogue des majoliques des musées nationaux, Paris, 1976, pp. 142-144, n° 481-487.