Pomander 1575 - 1585

Curator: Welcome. Let’s spend some time with this Renaissance-era silver pomander, dating roughly from 1575 to 1585. You can find it here at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: My first thought? Intricate. Exquisitely wrought, but…also, strangely unsettling. It's small but demands attention. There’s something precious, and perhaps even a little menacing, about its crafted perfection. Curator: "Menacing" is interesting. Considering its purpose – to hold aromatic substances intended to ward off disease – that darker reading speaks volumes about anxieties of the period. The use of silver as a material, especially given the artistry involved, also signifies a certain social status. Editor: Precisely. Silver speaks of wealth, yes, but more than that, the level of detailed work, that’s significant labor. It would've taken a silversmith considerable skill and time to produce this. It makes you think about the role of craft and skilled labour in creating these decorative objects for the upper classes. How accessible were these items? Who benefited? Curator: Its accessibility was definitely limited. Pomanders like these became statements about the wearer and reflections of the power they possessed. Silver was known for antibacterial properties even back then. This elevates the wearer, signalling purity. But it's a loaded statement when the very air the common folk breathe is seen as the origin of disease! Editor: It also tells us something about the institution of beauty in the Renaissance era. It’s a cultural object shaped as much by medical assumptions, social inequalities, and gender expectations, wouldn't you agree? Were women more likely to wear these than men? Were they considered more susceptible to disease? How were these beliefs being perpetuated through the church? The stories behind objects often whisper of larger trends at play. Curator: Absolutely. The pomander as an art piece encourages you to engage with so much of its cultural, economic, and material circumstance, it truly is such a complete little sphere to dive into. I agree with you. Editor: Definitely. A meticulously crafted symbol, both luxurious and freighted with the anxieties of its age. I’ll never look at potpourri the same way.