pilgrim bottle, Orazio Fontana

I’m David Cateforis with another Art Minute from the Spencer Museum of Art. The Spencer’s Renaissance collection includes a mid-16th century Italian example of the clay art form known as Majolica ware. These earthenware ceramics are noted for their brilliantly colored surfaces, created by tin oxide glazes. The Spencer’s jar features sky blue, golden yellow and cornhusk green. The two faces show an episode from the ancient myth of Proserpina, who ate six pomegranate seeds while in the underworld and was thus destined to live there every fall and winter for eternity while her mother Ceres mourned and made the plants wither. On one side, the Roman God of the underworld, Pluto, whisks away a startled Proserpina in his chariot. On the other side, sea nymphs and nude goddesses on nearby cliffs respond with alarm to the abduction. On both sides of the jar we see the frightened Proserpina in the dark underworld entrance, formed by the gaping mouths of horned creatures. The ancients used the myth of Proserpina to explain the seasons, while the creator of the Spencer’s jar, believed to be Orazio Fontana, used the subject in a more decorative fashion. With thanks to Nancy Hernandez for her text, from the Spencer Museum of Art, I’m David Cateforis.