11
Jar with a Kufic Pattern
Montelupo
Mid-fifteenth century
Tin-glazed earthenware
H: 18.1 cm (jVs in.)
Diam (at lip): 9.5 cm (3^3 /4 in.)
W (max.): 13 cm (5 Vs in.)
84.DE.96
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS
On the underside of the unglazed bottom, marks
were scratched after firing.CONDITION
Hairline crack opposite handle runs from lip down
neck and then forks; minor chips at lip, handle,
and base.PROVENANCE
Dr. Joseph Chompret, Paris (sold, Hotel Drouot,
Paris, December 15, 1976, lot 19, to R. Zietz);[Rainer Zietz, Ltd., London, sold to the J. Paul
Getty Museum, 1984].EXHIBITIONS
None.BIBLIOGRAPHY
GettyMusJ 13 (1985): 240, no. 156; Hess 1988A,
no. io; Summary Catalogue 2001, no. 350.THIS JAR'S CYLINDRICAL BODY, wide mouth, indented
collar, and slight foot are characteristic of the most com
mon albarello shape in the fifteenth century. The small
handle, however, is an unusual addition. There are only
three other examples of such a handle, and they are all
found on jars belonging to the same set as the Getty
piece.^1 Too small to grip well, this handle may have been
used to tie together a group of jars that could then be sus
pended for storage. It is perhaps more credible that a
pharmacist would have used this handle to grab the jar
from a crowded shelf.^2
The blue decoration is divided into horizontal bands
following the object's shape: scrolls around the neck; a
scroll and stylized leaf design around the shoulder and on
the handle,-^3 a wavy line with stylized leaves around the
curved section above the unglazed foot; and hatchedfields and knotwork within angular, discontinuous lines
around the body. The interior is tin glazed. It appears
that this jar was made in the Tuscan town of Montelupo
since excavated fragments from kiln sites in that town
match not only the scroll patterns around this vessel's
neck but also its peculiar Kufic decoration.^4
This rather stylized Kufic script pattern on Spanish
jars and dishes has been identified as the Arabic inscrip
tion signifying the wish of good health, alafia.^5 It is pos
sible that the angular line decoration—which appears in
identical form on all jars from this group—was meant to
copy this kind of inscription, a common blessing in Ara
bic and one that would be particularly appropriate for a
jar meant to hold medication (fig. lie).
Certainly, Kufic calligraphy was known throughout
Spain and Italy thanks to the spread of small and easily
transportable goods—such as textiles,^6 leather- and
metalwork, as well as ceramics (fig. IID)—decorated
with the script. Especially in Tuscany, Kufic designs had
a strong influence, and there are Kufic inscriptions in
paintings by important Tuscan artists from the late thir
teenth to the late fifteenth century, such as Duccio, Fra
Angelico, Gentile da Fabriano (fig. HE), Filippo Lippi,
and Domenico Ghirlandaio.^7 The illegibility of the jar's
inscription, however, suggests that either a fanciful Kufi-
like pattern was copied on all of the jars so inscribed or
else that the painter, misunderstanding Arabic orthogra
phy, copied his own corrupted version of the blessing as
a simpler, chiefly ornamental pattern.^8
One finds an interesting mixture of Near and Far
Eastern influences on this small jar. The scroll design
around its neck and shoulder can also be found on Is
lamic works,^9 although it may originally have been de
rived from a Far Eastern source. The knotwork on the
jar's body, commonly found on pots and tiles from
Malaga and Manises, can also be traced to Moorish and
Near Eastern sources.^10
Because of the large quantity of Hispano-Moresque
ceramics arriving in Italy by the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, Spanish rather than eastern Mediterranean
products were largely responsible for the spread of Is
lamic decoration to that country. However, the Islamic-
inspired ornamentation on the vessel under discussion
may have been influenced less by patterns on Spanish
jars than by the blue decoration on a type of early
fifteenth-century tile from Manises.^11
The marks on the underside may indicate the vol
ume, weight, or price of the container (fig. IIB).69