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Salt

A work made of silver gilt.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of silver gilt.

Date:

1575/1600

Artist:

Netherlands

About this artwork

An allegorical female nude in a landscape appears on each of the four sides of this work, while a frieze of putti and fantastic sea creatures runs around the base. Such imagery was intended to evoke the interaction between sea and land that produces salt. This elaborately decorated salt holder would have graced the tables at lavish banquets during the Renaissance and, at the same time, served a useful function. Indeed, this work is a proper tribute to the precious commodity of salt, which served to make perishable food more palatable and was also a sign of great wealth.

Status

On View, Gallery 238

Department

Applied Arts of Europe

Title

Salt

Place

Netherlands (Object made in)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1575–1600

Medium

Silver gilt

Dimensions

10.3 × 21.4 × 21.4 cm (4 1/16 × 8 7/16 × 8 7/16 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Mrs. Stanley Keith

Reference Number

1944.781

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/51753/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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