This exhibition at the Pharmaziemuseum (Pharmacy Museum) of the Universität Basel explores the intersections of science, art, health, and globalization in early modern Europe through apothecary jars. Used to store and display medicinal ingredients, these ceramic vessels were fundamental to the space and practices of pharmacies for hundreds of years. As artful objects, they reveal the pharmacy as part of a dynamic scientific and creative international community.
Known as albarelli, these vessels permitted people authorized to handle them to claim authority and command of knowledge within the rapidly growing field of pharmaceutical and medical studies. The exhibition points to the scientific community’s continual search for new knowledge and new technologies, facilitated by the networks of exchange established across the early modern world. Albarelli are characteristic of the experimentation and transformation of materials and ingredients that linked the pottery workshops with the apothecary practices. For the first time this temporary exhibition places the ceramic collection of the Pharmacy Museum at the heart of art historical and scientific examination, including a material investigation of their lustrous surfaces with non-destructive methods of analysis.

Website
pharmaziemuseum.ch/en/museum/ausstellung/sonderausstellung

Where
Pharmaziemuseum der Universität Basel
Totengässlein 3
4051 Basel

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