Mortar and Pestle
Artist
Johan Christian Quinckhelberger
(German, active 1600 - 1625)
Date1638
MediumBronze
DimensionsA (mortar): 13 1/4 x 14 3/8 inches (33.66 x 36.53 cm)
B (pestle): 22 1/4 inches (56.52 cm)
B (pestle): 22 1/4 inches (56.52 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: acquired through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Milton McGreevy through the Westport Fund
Object numberF59-61 A,B
On View
On viewGallery Location
- 115
Collections
DescriptionInverted bell form with spreading base and flaring rim, bearing three bands of relief molding separated by plain flat and torus moldings. C-handles with acanthus-leaf decorations join body at relief panels: bottom panel has pairs of confronted warriors alternating with foliate scrolls; center panel has frieze of anthemions. Narrow panel on shoulder inscribed: 1638 IOHAN*CHRISTIAN QVINCKHELBERGER.GOS.MICH.DEM.IACOB.SONTAG.APOTECKER.IN.BENFELD. Wood base with spheroid center section.Gallery LabelAn apothecary would have filled this large-scale mortar with roots and herbs and used the accompanying pestle to crush the contents into a mixture to be used for medicinal purposes. While the stylized dolphin handles and foliated designs on the body of the mortar are decorative motifs characteristic of 17th-century bronze mortars, the inscription near its rim is unusually explicit. The artist has included his name, the date and the name and place of residence of the apothecary for whom the pieces were made: "IOHAN*CHRISTIAN*QVINCKHELBERGER*GOS*MICH* DEM*IACOB* SONTAG*APOTECKER*IN*BENFELD* 1638" (Johan Christian Quinckhelberger cast me for Jacob Sontag Apothecary in Benfeld 1638). Benfeld is a village near the city of Strasbourg in modern-day France, which was a German-speaking region in the 17th century.
With Dirven Gallery, Eindhoven, Netherlands by 1959;
Purchased from Dirven Gallery by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1959.
Roger
Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A
Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association
with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 167 (repro.).
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