Two-Handled Pitcher or Vase from Alcochete near Setúbal: 13th or 14th century

The smaller two-handled pitcher or vase was probably also made in Paterna in Valencia, Spain, and is decorated like the two pitchers.

Vases of this shape often appear in 15th and 16th-century religious paintings, and are shown on an altar or near where someone is praying. Often they hold flowers symbolising the Virgin, or saintly qualities. Vases like these were exported to Medieval England, where they have been found in excavations of monasteries.