A very fine and rare albarello with a waisted cylindrical-shaped body standing on a short foot-ring with a sloping shoulder and everted rim, designed to hold apothecaries’ ointments and dry drugs. The body decorated with six horizontal bands of varying heights and motifs merging at the back.

The principal band contains a framed depiction of the great scientist Masawaiyh, known as Mesue in the West. He is portrayed with a black beard, wearing a large turban, his head slightly inclined forward, looking down pensively. A horizontal band with his name in Latin, Mesve, is shown in the background. The entire albarello painted with a series of flowering scrolls, in ochre-yellow, orange, black, cobalt-blue and sage-green.

Palermo, Italy
15th – 16th Century

Height: 22cm

Yuhanna ibn Masawaiyh was born in 777 in Gundeshapur, Persia and studied in Baghdad where he became the personal physician to four Caliphs. He composed medical treatises on several topics including headaches and melancholia. He died in Samarra in 857.