1602
Jug with the Portraits of the Electors of the Holy Roman Empire
Artist/maker unknownInscribed around arches above the figures: BISSCHAF ZV·TRIR; BISCHOF ZV:COLE; BISHOF ZV:MINS; RAMISCHE R: KAISER; PALTS:GRA F:AM:RIN; HERTZOG ZV:SAXE; BRANDE N BVRGH (Archbishop of Trier; Archbishop of Cologne; Archbishop of Mainz; Holy Roman Emperor [King of Bohemia]; Count Palatine of the Rhine; Duke of Saxony; [Margrave of] Brandenburg)
This jug is a very fine example of the imposing baluster-shaped wares produced in Raeren in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The arches frame portraits of the seven German rulers—four secular and three ecclesiastic—entitled to elect the Holy Roman Emperor. Idealized arrangements of coats of arms (suggestive of political order and harmony, even during a period of ongoing regional conflict) also appeared on communal drinking glasses of the period.
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