Albarello Jar with an Aphorism (900s): Art, History and Details

Albarello Jar with an Aphorism (900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The albarello was a jar designed to hold ointments and drugs for pharmacists. They were produced in the Middle East and Spain, as well as late medieval and Renaissance Italy. Albarellos are usually painted with floral, vegetal, or geometric designs. Arabic inscriptions are less common but here the elegant text reads: “Modesty [comes] from faith, and faith [comes] from Paradise,” attributed to the Prophet Muhammad.

Object facts

• Title: Albarello Jar with an Aphorism
• Date: 900s
• Culture: Central Asia, Samarkand, Samanid period (819–1005)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: Earthenware with underglaze decoration
• Dimensions: Diameter: 9.7 cm (3 13/16 in.); Overall: 13 cm (5 1/8 in.)
• Collection: Islamic Art
• Department: Islamic Art
• Accession number: 1996.298

A detail from the museum

The jar's Arabic inscription written in Eastern Kufic script.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Renaissance Armor, Early Islamic Ceramic, French Vase, Gleitsman Painting Added to Museum Collection,” December 13, 1996, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• McWilliams, Mary, "A Samanid Albarello", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 37 no. 08, October 1997

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.