Salt

Discussion

FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

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.

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