Water Jug with Arms of Jülich-Cleves-Berg 1574

Anno Knütgen crafted this water jug, around 1580, using stoneware with applied decoration and a metallic lid. Notice the jug’s form: a swelling body that tapers to a narrow base, crowned by a slender neck and metal cap. The smooth, cream-colored stoneware provides a canvas for the applied reliefs, figures with a somber formality, their drapery articulated with fine lines and subtle shading. The figures encircle the jug. This repetition creates rhythm, and the slight variations in their poses and attire suggest movement, engaging with the philosophical interest in space and perception which informed art making at this time. The semiotic of these signs allows the viewer to interpret the cultural codes that would have informed the artwork's making. The jug’s materiality—the cool, tactile stoneware, the contrasting textures of smooth surface and raised relief—invites touch, grounding the symbolic in the physical. Consider how its design challenges fixed meanings.