Stoup

A bowl of holy water featuring a relief of Christ on the Cross and the sign INRI above his head. It is in the form of a cross and the ends are finished with rounded shapes. Two angel heads appear on each side of the crosspiece. The bowl is shell-shaped with undulating rims and has a decorative feature on the base. The piece is hand-painted with cream and brown colours and the figure of Christ appears with his wounds. In the top part of the cross are two small holes through which a ribbon is passed to hang it on the wall.

The stamp is printed in black and has a double circle. In the centre, the text reads: “CHINA OPACA”. In the ring is: “PICKMAN Y Cª/SEVILLA”.

The Pickman ceramics factory produced a large number of household items associated with worship. In fact many of the vases found in the historical collection within the artistic ceramic section were conceived to contain flowers in altars and chapels. In this case, the piece relates to traditional domestic religiousness given that home stoups were found in entrance halls or bedrooms in order to give the family members divine protection. The style and subject-matter of this stoup is relatively popular although the choice of brown and ochre tones is intended to make it resemble the lusterware that was typical of the production of Manises (Valencia).