Attributed to Annibale Fontana Italian, about 1580 Painted and
gilt terracotta This "antidote" jar is one of two currently on
display at The Getty Center, Los Angeles. The Getty attributes
the work to one of the most important sculptors of the period,
Annibale Fontana. Why such an elaborate design for a storage
container? These jars held the most prized drugs in the
Renaissance pharmacy: mithridatum and theriac. Mithridatum and
theriac were used as antidotes for the Plague.