This apothecary jar, or “albarello”, comes from a series which has since been dispersed. All of the pieces in the set date from 1501 and are decorated with a Moorish bust with a band around the forehead, the emblem of an unidentified hospital.

The jar is painted with blue scrollwork on a yellow and orange background and a mascaron with large ears and a beard made from leaves, surrounding a large label. The word ‘pinochi’ indicates that the jar would have contained pine nuts.

A wreath of foliage and fruit forms a frame only interrupted by mysterious monograms beneath a two-barred cross. The discovery of fragments in a kiln in Deruta (Umbria) allowed this set of apothecary jars to be identified as coming from the town, one of the biggest centres for earthenware up to the mid-16th century.