CASE 33 MAIOLICA FROM NEUKLOSTER

The Cistercian abbey of Neukloster at Wiener Neustadt was founded by King (later Emperor) Friedrich III in 1444. In the eighteenth century, with patronage from the Imperial family, a collection of natural specimens and artistic treasures was built up to create a Naturalienkabinett and a Kunst- und Wunderkammer. The greater part of the maiolica, perhaps all, was acquired between 1744 and 1783 by the monk Bernhard Sommer and is described in manuscript catalogues made in 1855, preserved in the Abbey.

Maiolica from this celebrated collection was lent to the Museum from the 1860s onwards, as discussed by Rainald Franz [p. 14]. The acquisition in 1925 by the MAK of collections accumulated in the Abbey included ninety-two examples of Italian maiolica and greatly strengthened the Museum’s holdings of sixteenth-century Urbino istoriato (notably by Francesco Durantino) and of seventeenth and eighteenth century Castelli.

Bibliography: Neukloster n.d.; Runkel 2019.

212 Pilgrim flask

By the “Painter of the Orpheus basin,” probably in the workshop of Guido di Merlino, Urbino, c1540–1550

MAK, KE 6698

Hauptinventar no. 25993r

Bought from Neukloster, 1925

Old Neukloster labels beneath the foot 2 and 121

Tin-glazed outside and in and beneath the hollow foot; two holes made in the foot before firing

H (with cap) 36.6 cm

Condition: generally good, but finial to cap missing

Bibliography: Führer 1929, p. 73

The pilgrim flask has two handles formed as twisted twigs; the cap is secured by a screw fitting on the interior, matching a thread on the upstand of the flask itself. This was a virtuoso pottery technique which was described by Cipriano Piccolpasso, who noted that some maiolica bottles were made “with a screw mouth, in the manner of silver flasks. I would not wish to pass lightly over this secret, because it is a thing too beautiful and ingenious and very difficult.”1

On each side, in a continuous landscape with high rocks, trees, and distant mountains is a river god holding an upturned pot from which water issues. Around them, naked men and women (or gods and goddesses?) bathe. No specific mythological scene seems to be represented. For the painter, see no. 55.

1 Piccolpasso 2007, Book 1, p. 51.