17th C. Spanish Bronze Apothecary Mortar & Pestle with Relief Heads

Southern Europe, Spain. A cast bronze mortar and its pestle, made as a working set for grinding drugs, spices, and pigments. The mortar has a flared, everted rim and a squat, slightly waisted body on a molded foot. Four relief heads circle the wall, framed by curling locks or a shaggy mane, and are separated by vertical flanges with knobbed ends. The heads may be gorgoneia, or Hercules wearing the skin of the Nemean lion as a hood. Either reading suits the classicizing taste of the period. The interior has a smooth, mellow golden surface from long use. The pestle has a turned, knopped shaft with a small finial at one end and a broad, flat disc at the other, where the hammered texture of the metal is still visible. The two possible readings of the heads come from different classical traditions. The gorgoneion, the severed head of Medusa, was the oldest protective device in Greek and Roman art. It was placed on shields, armor, and doorways to turn away harm, and Renaissance and Baroque metalworkers revived it as an ornament. Hercules, by contrast, wore the hide of the Nemean lion, killed in the first of his twelve labors, with the animal's scalp pulled over his own head. Spanish rulers had long claimed the hero as a legendary founder of the Iberian monarchy, so a Herculean head would fit naturally on a Spanish object. Bronze mortars with vertical flanges or ribs, often finished with knobs like these, are among the most typical forms from Iberian workshops of the 16th and 17th centuries. The flanges were decorative, but they also strengthened the wall against the steady pounding of the pestle. Item # 205565

Estimate:£189.18

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