The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 23, 2024

Two-Handled "Oak Leaf" Drug Jar with Male and Female Portraits

Two-Handled "Oak Leaf" Drug Jar with Male and Female Portraits

1431

workshop of Giunta di Tugio

(Italian, c. 1382–1450)
Italy, Florence, 15th century
tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)
Overall: 20.4 cm (8 1/16 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1943.54
Location: 117A Italian Renaissance

Description

This two-handled drug container with a bulbous body and short neck belongs to a group of wares known as "oak leaf jars" because of their decoration. This example includes two profile busts amid blue-on-white oak leaves on branching stems. On each handle is a crutch, painted in green and manganese. This was the badge of the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence. The star motif below the crutch is the workshop mark of the ceramist Giunta di Tugio, known to have received this commission in the year 1431. In the early Middle Ages hospitals were simple hospices set up outside cities to offer food and lodging to pilgrims and travelers. The Santa Maria Nuova hospital, by the mid-1300s the largest in Florence, was the first hospital in that city dedicated primarily to caring for the sick.
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 216 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 78 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 78 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 89 archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art, and Jenifer Neils. The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Museum in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1982. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 38, fig. 40
  • Florence and the Arts: Five Centuries of Patronage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 13-September 19, 1971).
  • {{cite web|title=Two-Handled "Oak Leaf" Drug Jar with Male and Female Portraits |url=false|author=Giunta di Tugio|year=1431|access-date=23 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1943.54