Pilgrim Bottle (c. 1540): Art, History and Details

Pilgrim Bottle (c. 1540) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

During the Italian Renaissance of the 1400s and 1500s, nobles and merchants eager to express their wealth and sophistication ordered ceramics for dining, display, and storage. Known as maiolica, because it resembled the brightly colored ceramics from the Mediterranean island of Majorca, these ceramic vessels were covered with a tin glaze that provided an opaque white surface on which colorful decoration could be painted.

Object facts

• Title: Pilgrim Bottle
• Date: c. 1540
• Culture: Italy, Papal States, Faenza
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)
• Dimensions: Overall: 34.6 x 19.4 x 12.4 cm (13 5/8 x 7 5/8 x 4 7/8 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1923.914

A detail from the museum

This pear-shaped vessel recalls flasks that early travelers tied to the harnesses of their horses on long trips or pilgrimages to holy sites.

Collection credit

Gift from J. H. Wade

Further reading listed by the museum

• 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.
• Speight, Charlotte F., and John Toki. Hands in Clay. 4th ed. London: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1999.

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.