Pilgrim Flask 1554 - 1569

Curator: Just look at the textures! It almost feels as if you've stumbled upon a forgotten relic from the bottom of the sea. Editor: That’s quite apt, I think. We’re looking at a pilgrim flask, a stoneware piece by Bernard Palissy, crafted sometime between 1554 and 1569. Curator: A pilgrim flask? Ironic considering its overtly terrestrial… serpentine affect. This ceramic seems to burst forth from the earth like some petrified tale. The snake… what does it evoke in you? Editor: Danger, certainly. Perhaps it is there to evoke transformation? The stoneware of Palissy must have been so innovative and rare for this time... what can you tell me about it? Curator: Precisely! In alchemy and Gnosticism, the serpent represents cyclical processes, and here its coiled form may symbolize perpetual change. And to me this invokes thoughts about time. Pilgrimage and cyclical time... Editor: You can definitely observe a fascination with materials that reflects not just nature, but the era's intense relationship to consumption, to craft itself. These shells weren't just for adornment, right? It screams that these weren't easily acquired in the first place and could have been quite precious in that day and age... Curator: It really drives us to question the purpose of decoration, doesn’t it? The shells of course, recall not just distant lands but even a deep relationship to pilgrimage itself. Think of Saint James and the scallop shells. Editor: Absolutely! And considering it resides at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, we’re looking at not just artistry, but a relic of commerce. Someone, at some point, invested significant labor and money to acquire this. Curator: Which allows it to function beyond craft, beyond stoneware. What resonates about it, even now? Editor: I remain so awed at how well this flask embodies both the period’s technical capabilities and its symbolic landscape, but it's quite frightening as a functional vessel nonetheless. Curator: Indeed. An evocative merging of material innovation and the enduring potency of symbols!