Jug with Finely-Dressed Woman

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This elongated jug displays a bust-length image of a woman in profile set against sprays of foliage. She wears a high headdress, beaded choker, and brocaded dress typical of 1430s Italian court fashions, which are well documented in the paintings and drawings of Pisanello. Columns of stacked bell-shapes flank the handle. A pattern of dots and diamonds embellish the spout. A stylish witness to the elegant court culture in which such jugs were used, this work is decorated with a deep blue pigment of cobalt oxide, known as zaffera, developed by late medieval potters in central Italy.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.

Metropolitan Museum of Art