24
Drug Jar for Persian
Philonium
Faenza
ca. 1520-40
Tin-glazed earthenware
H: 37 cm (i4^9 /i6 in.)
Diam (at lip): 12.5 cm (4^15 /i6 in.)
Diam (max.): 16.5 cm (6 Viz in.)
84.DE.10 5MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS
On the banderole, FILONIJ P[ER]SICHI.CONDITION
Minor chips around the rim.PROVENANCE
[M. & R. Stora, Paris, sold to W. Warren]; Whitney
Warren (1864-1943), New York; by inheritance to
his widow, New York (sold, Parke Bernet Galleries,
New York, October 7, 1943, lot 418); (sold,Sotheby's, London, November 22, 1983, lot 197);
[Rainer Zietz, Ltd., London, sold to the J. Paul
Getty Museum, 1984].EXHIBITIONS
None.BIBLIOGRAPHY
GettyMusf 13 (1985): 242, no. 166; Hess 1988A,
no. 25; Summary Catalogue 2001, no. 363.THIS TALL AND WAISTED CYLINDRICAL DRUG VESSEL
is painted with a label describing its contents in dark
blue, surrounded by fruit, foliate arabesques, and inter
lacing in yellow, ocher, dark blue, green, and white. The
areas around the neck and above the base display a trian
gular pattern in dark blue and white, and around the
shoulder is a garland in yellow, ocher, and green; all of
this embellishment is painted on a light blue berettino
ground. The white tin glaze that covers the inside of this
jar is unusual; before the early sixteenth century, areas
that were rarely seen, such as the undersides of plates
and interiors of jars, more commonly displayed less pre
cious lead-based glazes.
The jar's inscription is a variant of philonium per-sicum (Persian philonium), named after the first-century
B.C. physician Philon of Tarsus. This pharmaceutical
electuary was prepared from opium and other ingredi
ents, including saffron, white pepper, camphor, honey
of roses, and ground bloodstone, pearls, and amber. The
resultant confection served to relieve pain, induce
sleep, improve blood circulation, prevent miscarriages,
and reduce the pain of hemorrhoids and of heavy
menstruation.^1
In place of the white tin-glaze ground characteristic
of most maiolica, berettino works are traditionally dis
tinguished by a lavender-gray ground produced by tinting
the white glaze with a small amount of cobalt oxide. One
scholar believes that this tinting first occurred inadver
tently from attempts to produce a white glaze ground
that was as neutral as possible. According to this theory,small amounts of cobalt were added to an impure bianco
in order to produce a more gray ground rather than more
yellow-tinted glaze ground that would result from the
iron impurities.^2 The "contamination" of a white ground
by the particularly strong and hard to control cobalt pig
ment was certainly possible. However, it seems more
likely that berettino-coloxtd glazes were purposefully
produced in imitation of similar colors on Middle East
ern ceramics imported at the time.^3
There are two general types of Faentine berettino
decoration: that on which the light blue decoration of
grotesques, cherubs, trophies, scrolls, and other motifs is
painted in reserve in dark blue (see nos. 27, 32) and that
on which the light blue ground is further embellished
with delicate designs of floral and foliate sprays,
arabesques, cherubs' heads, grotesques, garlands, inter
lacing knotwork, and trophies in dark blue with touches
of white (although green and yellow were sometimes
used for decorative emphasis, as on this albarello).
Ceramics decorated with the latter type, referred to in
contemporary documents as gentilezze and vaghezze
(refinements and embellishments), are listed in Faentine
documents as being exported to Bologna in the 1520s.^4
In addition, shards found in Faenza and in areas to
which Faentine products were exported indicate that a
large number of maiolica wares decorated with wreaths,
flowers, and fruit on a berettino ground were pro
duced in various Faentine workshops in the third and
fourth decades of the sixteenth century. According to
Giuseppe Liverani, "in this type of ornament we find the140