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