Pilgrim Flask

Unknown

late 15th or early 16th century

Free-blown colorless (slightly pink) glass with gold leaf, enamel, and applied decoration, Glass

J. Paul Getty Museum

A clear glass flask with a rounded body, narrow neck, and flared base, decorated with gold leaf and colorful enamel. From the shape of dried gourds used by travelers to carry drinking water, metalworkers patterned their versions of these flasks. From the metal examples, with their tall tapering necks and flat oval bodies, artists in glass and ceramics made their own purely decorative versions of these pilgrim flasks. The gilded knobs attached to the sides above and below the bulge of the body imitate the loops that would have originally attached the flask to the pilgrim's side; glassworkers retained them as a decorative reminder of the vessel's earlier function. A variety of decorative techniques embellish this heavy glass pilgrim flask. Bands of