Milk Glass Vase in the Shape of a Pilgrim's Flask

Description Fine opaque white glass (milk glass, or in Italian, "lattimo") was developed in Venice to imitate the appearance of the delicate, translucent Persian and Chinese porcelain with blue and white designs that Europeans found so appealing and were unable to reproduce. Nevertheless, the results here, with the combination of blue and white design and a mythological scene (the abduction of the maiden Europa by the god Jupiter disguised as a bull) framed in yellow, is immediately imitative of Italian Renaissance maiolica (earthenware). The flask shape with attachments for carrying cords draws both on Roman glass flasks and the simple wooden flask used by pilgrims.

Exhibitions

• World of Wonder. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1971-1972.
• 3000 Years of Glass: Treasures from The Walters Art Gallery. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1982.

Provenance Harding, New York; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1916 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1916