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

animal's many symbolic qualities—as one of the four

heraldic beasts of the hunt, it represents speed and fe­

rocity— or to a scene from Greco-Roman mythology.^5

One finds similar boars on maiolica jugs, plates, and ce­

ramic fragments,-^6 this animal can be seen as a heraldic

emblem on a Florentine jug of the third quarter of

the fifteenth century,^7 as well as on an early sixteenth-

century maiolica plate from Gubbio in the Victoria and

Albert Museum, London (inv. 1725-1855);^8 neither coat

of arms has been identified.

Including the Getty Museum's piece, approximately

twenty drug jars with the Santa Maria Nuova crutch em­

blem are known. They include one decorated with eagles

in the State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

(H: 18.5 cm, inv. F-3118);^9 two—one with birds, the

other with fish—in the Musee du Louvre, Paris (H: 19

cm, inv. OA 6304; H: 19 cm, inv. OA 6305);^10 another

with fish in the Toledo Museum of Art (H: 30.8 cm);^11 a

drug jar with rampant dogs in the National Gallery of

Victoria, Melbourne (H: 31 cm, inv. 3649.3);^12 another

with running dogs in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cam­

bridge (H: 20 cm),-^13 two—one with rabbits, the other

with fleurs-de-lis—in the Victoria and Albert Museum,

London (H: 21 cm, inv. 389-1889; H: 21 cm, inv. C.2063-

1910);^14 another with fleurs-de-lis in the Cleveland Mu­

seum of Art;^15 a third with fleurs-de-lis in the Museo

Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples;^16 one with geomet­

ric decoration in the Osterreichisches Museum fur ange-

wandte Kunst, Vienna (H: 20.5 cm);^17 one with cranes in

the Lehman collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art,

New York (H: 31.5 cm);^18 one with leaf decoration in the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (H: 20.5 cm, inv. 23.268);

one with Saint Bernardino monograms in the Museo

Nazionale delle Ceramiche, Faenza (H: 18.5 cm, inv.

21054/c);^19 one with crowns formerly in the collection of

the princes of Liechtenstein, Vaduz (inv. 1269);^20 another

with crowns cited as in a private collection, Milan, and

probably the same as that from the Guido Rossi collec­

tion, Milan, that was offered for sale in 1998 (H: 19.3

cm);^21 one with profile portraits of a bearded man wear­

ing a pointed cap and a woman wearing a plumed hat in

the Cleveland Museum of Art (H: 20.3 cm, inv. 43.54);^22

and one with curly-haired figures in profile formerly in

the Volpi collection, Florence.^23 Cora also mentions a

drug jar from this same Santa Maria Nuova group, also

formerly in the Volpi collection.^24 From the published

dimensions of these jars, they fall into two groups accord­

ing to size: fifteen jars measure between 18.5 and 22.2 cm,

and three jars measure between 30.8 and 31.5 cm.

Two other drug jars with the crutch emblem of the

Santa Maria Nuova hospital but of slightly different

shape and later date and with simplified leaf decoration

were formerly in the Elie Volpi collection, Florence, one

of which was later sold at auction in Paris.^25 Maiolica

jugs and jars bearing the same crutch emblem were also

produced for the Santa Maria Nuova hospital in the six­

teenth and seventeenth centuries.^26

60 Relief-Blue Jar with Running Boars