Drug pot (one of a pair)

Orazio Pompei

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Yellow scales cover the spouts of these pots (see also 41.190.72), culminating in dragons’ heads at the openings; these vessels would have been used to store herbal syrups. The intersection of spout and body is marked by a painted flower, with male and female portraits appearing on either side. Fantastic and chaotic, these pots must have brought joy to the pharmacist’s routine.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art