Powder Flask (c. 1570): Art, History and Details

Powder Flask (c. 1570) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Powder flasks are small, portable containers designed to hold gunpowder. From the 1400s to the 1800s, powder flasks were indispensable for charging and priming firearms of all types. Without powder flasks firearms were of little use to their owners. Many highly decorated flasks rank as works of art. During the 1500s, they were frequently decorated with images of famous historical figures. Here the figures of Judith and Holofernes derive from the Old Testament.

Object facts

• Title: Powder Flask
• Date: c. 1570
• Culture: Germany
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: staghorn (two branches) carved with relief scene of Judith and Holofernes; mounts missing
• Dimensions: Overall: 15.9 x 12.1 cm (6 1/4 x 4 3/4 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1916.452

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Gilchrist, Helen Ives. A Catalogue of the Collection of Arms & Armor Presented to the Cleveland Museum of Art by Mr. and Mrs. John Long Severance; 1916-1923. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1924.
• Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1998.
• Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms & Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007.

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.