Jug
Unknown Artist
1608
Medium
salt-glazed stoneware with applied and impressed decoration
Dimensions
33.2 × 28.3 cm
Classification
Ceramic
Department
Decorative Art and Design
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
Accession Number
1974.43
About this artwork
These globular jugs decorated with bearded masks on their necks represent an important type of Rhenish stoneware made from the 1400s onward. They were named "Bartmann" (Bearded Man) or "Bellarmine" jugs. The latter was a reference to Cardinal Bellarmine (1542–1621)—hated in Germany for his Counter-Reformational zeal—because of his supposed resemblance to the bearded images on these vessels. This jug bears the arms of the Pallant van Culemborg family of Gelders. The production and export of Germa...