Goblet made from a bezoar, Prague c. 1600

Bezoar cup, c. 1600.

A bezoar is a hard mass formed in the intestinal system of certain ruminants such as goats. The word 'bezoar' comes from the Persian word pād-zahr (پادزهر), which literally means 'antidote'. From at least the twelfth century, Muslim physicians held that a drinking vessel containing a bezoar was capable of neutralising any poison, and in consequence these objects were highly prized. In this case, Rudolf's artisans have gone one better by fashioning a large bezoar into a drinking vessel. The top has been sliced off and the middle hollowed out to create a cup; a lid of emanelled gold has been affixed above; and an oval foot and vase-like stem below have been attached to a band at the top by three clasps to avoid harming the precious object itself.

Literature. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Prag um 1600: Kunst und Kultur am Hofe Rudolfs II, 2 vols (Freren, 1988), vol. 1, no. 339; E. Scheicher, 'Zur Ikonologie Naturalien im Zusammenhang der enzyklopädischen Kunstkammer', Anzeiger des Germanischen Nationalmuseums (1995), pp. 115-25; Karl-Heinz Spiess, ‘The Euro-Asian Trade in Bezoar Stones (approx. 1500 to 1700)’, in Michael North (ed.), Artistic and Cultural Exchanges between Europe and Asia, 1400-1900: Rethinking Markets, Workshops and Collections (London, 2010); Sabine Haag and Franz Kirchweger, eds., Treasures of the Habsburgs (London, 2013), pp. 198-9.

Commentary. Howard Hotson (May 2018)