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

37c Alternate view of [.2].

extraordinary ceremony whereof I had been curious to

observe, for 'tis extremely pompous and worth seeing) I

departed Venice/^7 The resulting compounds in paste

form were dried "for fifteen days ... in a vessel of lead,

glass, or gold/^7 8 The Getty jars, with their lead-glazed in­

teriors, could have been used in a particularly sumptu­

ous preparation ceremony.

The elaborate strapwork, masks, and the relief and

figural ornamentation provide a rich sampling of Italian

embellishment around the turn of the seventeenth cen­

tury. Given the importance of this drug to the city of

Venice (which had a long-standing monopoly on its pro­

duction)^9 and the stylistic similarities between the

OPPOSITE: 37 [.2]

37D Alternate view of [.2].

figures on the jar and aspects of the late work of Jacopo

Sansovino (i486-1570),^10 it is possible that the jars were

produced in the Veneto by one of Sansovino^7 s followers.^11

The figures^7 dancelike poses, the animated relief scenes,

and the vigorously formed yet elegant nudes of slightly

attenuated proportions—at once sensuous and bizarre—

are typical of Mannerism and are most closely related

to the work of the Milanese sculptor Annibale Fontana

(fig. 37G).^12 (By the late sixteenth century theriac had

become a great article of commerce in several Italian

cities, including Milan.)^13

Drug Jars 209