A wheel-thrown apothecary jar with a slightly concave centre,featuring a high neck and a flared rim. It rests on a recessed circularfoot and is decorated in cobalt blue with purple outlines ona white tin enamel ground.The body is enveloped by a wide band depicting a continuouslandscape scene, where two elephants with pack saddles and apalm tree, or date palm, alternate with lush exotic vegetation, allset upon mounds.The neck is decorated with a band of alternating and invertedsemicircles, separated by threads and filled with three crescentshapes arranged in a pyramidal formation, commonly referredto as ‘three beads’. These are bordered by a ring of fine purple andblue lines.The base features a frieze of purple threads filled with smallleaves.The syncretism of this piece reflects the influence of threespecific decorative traditions.Its primary inspiration lies in Chinese porcelain, evident notonly in the cobalt-blue decorative elements outlined in purple,reminiscent of Ducai porcelain1, but also in the longitudinal and cruciform arrangement of repeated motifs, possibly evoking Kraakporcelain2; the inclusion of the ‘three beads’ is thought to be influencedby the ornaments found on Chinese ruyi heads.This stylistic hybridity also incorporates elements fromLevantine Spanish ceramics or North African pottery centres.This can be observed in the space’s obsessive decoration and inthe potter’s selection of elephants and palm (or date palm) motifsas central themes.Stylistically, this albarello dates to the third quarter of the17th century, with references to the ‘desenho miúdo’. These includethe purple outlines, elaborate and densely clustered symmetric lfoliage sprouting from an expanded corolla, as well as the repetitionof inverted identical forms.The Portuguese production of apothecary jars is mainly attributedto the Lisbon and Coimbra potteries, from the secondhalf of the 16th century onwards, as credited by the 1572 Regimentodos Oleiros, the Statute of Potters, which refers an example dated1589 that belonged to the collection of the Count of Ameal.3
Teresa Peralta
1 A technique in which the outlines are drawn beneath the glaze in shades of blue, before being filled in with other colours pigments.
2 Cf.: Lisboa na Origem da Chinoiserie – A Faiança Portuguesa do séc. XVII, Vol. II, Lisboa, São Roque Antiguidades e Galeria de Arte, p. 177.
3 Queiróz, José, 2002, fig. 15.