Bartmann jug

A Bartmannkrug is a bulbous, brown glazed clay pot, on whose neck is the eponymous relief of a bearded male face.

Manufacture and sale

Bartmann jugs were produced in large numbers, among others, in Frechen near Cologne in the 16th to 18th century, and usually consist of Rhenish stoneware.

In Potsdam Bartmann jugs were found from Waldburger stoneware in excavations that. Onto the 14 -15 Century are dated.

The Bartmannkrug was extremely popular for a long time and was produced for the regional sales as well as for the national market. Especially the great demand in England and Holland made ​​him an important export item. There they were called Grey Beards or Bellarmines; latter term is derived from the one-time well-known and hated in England, Cardinal Bellarmine. Even in the 20th century were by the farmers in the Bremen area ( undecorated ) Henkel bottles made ​​of clay, in which they took coffee with the field work, " Baartmann " called, though long since no more beard mask was attached as a decoration on them.

Importance of the beard mask

Whether the mask-like appearance of your face has a forgotten symbolism, is controversial among art historians and could not be clearly answered so far. There are different interpretations, according to which the bearded faces represented, among others, God the Father, served as apotropaion magical purposes or the owner or user of the jar represent and should encourage self- reflection by observation. Contrast, is represented by the other historians believe that the face images had no special significance, but only for decorative purposes served as mask -like bearded faces in the Renaissance as decorative elements without any symbolism corresponded to contemporary tastes and were accordingly used frequently.

Literary

A literary arabesque to Bartmannkrug are Ernst Bloch in his influential early work " The Spirit of Utopia " ( Leipzig, 1918, pp. 14f. ). The pitcher gets here an allegory to the art or even further to a style of philosophical thinking which would be the things meet:

Theodor W. Adorno discussed this text in his autobiographical miniature "Henkel, pitcher and early experience " in contrast to Georg Simmel's discussion of an antique vase (see Adorno, Notes to Literature, Ffm 1981, p 556ff. ). Concern value in this context further Martin Heidegger's reflections on " The Thing ", for example, provide such Krug erkiesen (see Martin Heidegger, lectures and essays, Pfullingen 1954).