Italian Ceramics: Catalogue of the J. Paul Getty Museum Collection

37

Drug Jar for Mithridate

and Drug Jar for Theriac

Attributed to Annibale Fontana

(1540-1587)^1

Northern Italy (possibly Milan)

ca. 1580

Terra-cotta with white paint and gilt

exterior and lead-glazed interiors

[.1] H (with lid): 60 cm (23^5 /s in.)

Diam (max.): 39.4 cm cm (15 Vi in.)

[.2] H (with lid): 60 cm (23^5 /s in.)

Diam (max.): 39 cm (15 % in.)

90.SC.42.1-. 2

MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS

None.

CONDITION

The two lids exhibit a number of breaks and

repairs. Cross-sectional analysis indicates that ini­

tially the jars were completely oil-gilded; this

surface was later completely covered with lead-

white paint; finally the figural elements were oil-

gilded (rendering its present white and gilt

surface). The objects underwent thermolumines-

cence analysis in 1990, returning a result that the

material is consistent with the expected age of the

objects (i.e., that the material was last fired be­

tween 320 and 490 years ago [.1] and between 320

and 500 years ago [.2]). The lower front cartouches

on both jars have two layers of white oil-paint cov­

ered with a layer of Prussian blue, the latter in use

only after the early eighteenth century.

PROVENANCE

[Mario Tazzoli, London, sold to Siran Holding

Corporation],- [Siran Holding Corporation, Geneva,

sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1990].

EXHIBITIONS

None.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GettyMusf 19 (1991): 164, no. 57 ; Summary Cata­

logue 1993, 2ii, no. 367; Fusco 1997, 23; Master­

pieces 1997, 23, no. 15; Summary Catalogue 2001 ,

no. 375; Fogelman and Fusco 2002, no. 13.

THESE ELABORATELY MODELED DRUG JARS were made

to contain specific medicinal preparations.^2 The prepara­

tions can be identified thanks to the jars' relief scenes de­

picting the origins of the drug each was intended to store.

These scenes may well copy as-yet-unidentified print

sources. The first jar was made to hold antidotum

Mithhdaticum, or mithridate, named for its inventor,

Mithridates Eupator VI, king of Pontus (120-163 B.C.;

reigned from in B.C.), whose image surmounts the lid.

An amateur pharmacist fearful of being poisoned by his

enemies, as was common in ancient political warfare,

Mithridates concocted his own antidote. He ingested

this antidote on a daily basis after first testing its powers

on criminals condemned to death. Following a failed

military campaign against the Roman Empire, the king

decided to commit suicide rather than become a Roman

subject. But because of his diet of mithridate, the king

was not affected by the poison he had swallowed, and so

Mithridates was forced to have himself slain by one of

his own guards.^3

The second jar held theriaca Andromachi, or the­

riac, named for Andromachus, court physician to the

Roman emperor Nero (reigned A.D. 54-68). Commanded

by Nero to revise Mithridates^7 famous elixir, Andro­

machus added dozens of new ingredients, including the

flesh of vipers. As a result this antidote was better-suited

than mithridate to counteract snake bites. Andromachus

wrote the recipe down in the form of verse, which was

preserved and discussed by Galen of Pergamum (A.D.

129 - ca. 216).^4 Galen presents theriac, as well as his own

version of the antidote called Galene, in several books.^5

The work of Greek writers and physicians, such as

Dioscorides (A.D. 40-ca. 90) and Claudius Galen (A.D.

130- ca. 201), greatly influenced medical theory and

practice in Europe from the twelfth to the mid-

seventeenth century. The late medieval revival of inter­

est in classical botany, together with the recovery of

ancient texts on the medicinal value of plants, led to a

renewed interest in pharmacology. Important for the de­

velopment of this materia medica was the retrieval of

plants discussed by the ancient scholars, most of which

came from the eastern Mediterranean. For this reason

Venice, with its commercial and political ties to the

Middle East, became the most important center for the

recuperation of theriac and mithridate (figs. 37E —F).

Concern over the quality and authenticity of these drugs

led Venetian officals in 1172 and again in 1258 to order

that the drugs be prepared in the presence of municipal

authorities.^6 The compounding of these antidotes typi­

cally featured lavish ceremony, with the city's political

and religious authorities present.^7 In his diary entry for

March 23, 1646, British gentleman and writer John Eve­

lyn writes, "Having packed up my purchases of books,

pictures, glasses, treacle [i.e., theriac] (the making and

OPPOSITE: 37 [.1]

204