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Salt Cellar
(Renaissance Europe )
The shape of the salt cellar with its concave hexagonal body is similar to Walters 44.360. The decoration is as follows:
Within the receptacle (saleron) is a scene of Adonis or Meleager shooting an arrow at a boar which bolts towards a wood pursued by two hounds. The flat rim is decorated with scrolls and flowers and edged with a line of semi-circles drawn in black on a white ground enclosing rosettes composed of black dots.
On the body, each of the six sides displays a figure of a deity with distinguishing emblems: Jupiter, in armored breast-plate, crowned and holding a scepter, standing with his eagle between his legs, spreading its wings; Juno, turning her profile to the left, crowned and holding a long rod entwined with a snake, behind her the peacock; Diana, accompanied by two hounds, running to the right holding a crescent in her left hand and a spear in her right; Mercury, stepping to the left, holding the caduceus, beside him the cock; swaggering Mars, brandishing shield and falchion; armored Minerva, holding a furled flag and a shield embossed with the head of Medusa, at her feet the owl. The six figures are united by a continuous landscape of varying shades of green and blue and by a black background powdered with rosettes and tiny stars.
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.
Henry Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Exhibitions
| 1994 | Artful Dining: The Exhibition. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. |
| 1954 | Enamel. Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration, New York. |
Geographies
France, Limoges (Place of Origin)
Measurements
H: 3 1/2 x W: 5 5/16 in. (8.9 x 13.5 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by Henry Walters
Location in Museum
Not on view
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
44.33