Although this object is frequently called an aquamanile, it does not satisfy the definition: true aquamanilia are handheld and generally provided with a handle for that purpose. This vessel was designed to stand on a shelf with a basin below. The small heads surrounding the tower mimic the gargoyles of monumental architecture, which were designed to manage rainwater.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Turret Laver
Date:15th century
Culture:German
Medium:Bronze
Dimensions:Overall: 21 x 5 7/8 in., 6.299lb. (53.3 x 14.9 cm, 2857g)
Classification:Metalwork-Bronze
Credit Line:The Cloisters Collection, 1947
Accession Number:47.101.56a, b
J. Pierpont Morgan American, London and New York ; [ Duveen Brothers, London, Paris and New York (ca. 1920)] ; [ Raphael Stora, Paris and New York (sold 1939)] ; [ Brummer Gallery, Paris and New York (1939–1947)]
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The Middle Ages: Treasures from The Cloisters and The Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 18, 1970–March 29, 1970.
Chicago. Art Institute of Chicago. "The Middle Ages: Treasures from The Cloisters and The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 16, 1970–July 5, 1970.
New York. The Cloisters Museum & Gardens. "The Secular Spirit: Life and Art at the End of the Middle Ages," March 28–June 15, 1975.
Binghamton University Art Museum, State University of New York at Binghamton. "Images of the Plague," October 16–November 22, 1977.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "Love and War: A Manual for Life in the Late Middle Ages," November 8, 1998–January 31, 1999.
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Myth and Mystique: Cleveland's French Gothic Table Fountain," October 9, 2016–February 26, 2017.
Rorimer, James J. "A Treasury at the Cloisters." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 6, no. 9 (May 1948). p. 253.
Ostoia, Vera K. The Middle Ages: Treasures from the Cloisters and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1969. no. 56, pp. 124–125, 257.
Husband, Timothy B., and Jane Hayward, ed. The Secular Spirit: Life and Art at the End of the Middle Ages. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975. no. 70, p. 64.
Fliegel, Stephen. "The Cleveland Table Fountain." In Myth and Mystique: Cleveland's Gothic Table Fountain, edited by Stephen Fliegel, and Elina Gertsman. Cleveland Masterwork Series, Vol. 3. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016. pp. 25–26, fig. 24.
Fliegel, Stephen, and Elina Gertsman, ed. Myth and Mystique: Cleveland's Gothic Table Fountain. Cleveland Masterwork Series, Vol. 3. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016. no. 10, pp. 128–31, fig. 84.
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The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world, encompassing the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome to the beginning of the Renaissance.
