221 - Mortar. Catalan Pyrenees, 17th–18th centuries.

Mortar. Catalan Pyrenees, 17th–18th centuries. Granite. It has a crack on one side. Measurements: 17 x 25 cm (diameter). Provenance: Estate of Ramon Martí Alsina and Ricard Martí Aguiló. Artistic and heritage collection originating in the legacy of Catalan painters Ramon Martí Alsina (1826–1894), a seminal figure of 19th-century Catalan Realism, and his son Ricard Martí Aguiló (1857–1935). Passed down and enriched across successive generations, the collection brings together works from the original holdings of both artists alongside acquisitions made by their descendants. Dedicated to preserving and recovering the family legacy, the descendants actively reacquired works by the painters as they entered the market, progressively expanding the collection to encompass paintings, sculptures, archaeological artifacts, and other items of artistic and historical significance. A 17th–18th-century mortar made of granite, with decorative moldings on the sides. Old cookbooks contain a large number of recipes that rely on the use of a mortar, a utensil that, although rarely used today, was once so versatile that every kitchen had a wide variety of them—from the largest, used for pounding meat and vegetables, to the smallest, used for grinding spices. Even in antiquity, there were large mortars made of bronze for crushing and mixing marble or lime, which were used to produce construction binders or plaster, such as stucco. The Roman poet Juvenal mentioned it in articles on the preparation of medicines, reflecting the early use of this tool in apothecaries. The antiquity of mortars is also very well documented in some works of ancient literature, such as the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus, which dates back to 1550 B.C. and is considered one of the oldest medical texts from Ancient Egypt. It is also mentioned in the Old Testament. Good mortars must be heavy or made of durable materials to withstand prolonged pounding and thus reduce substances to powder. The mortar cannot be fragile, as it would break during the grinding process. The material must also be cohesive so that its surface does not wear down and mix with the ingredients. It has a crack on one side.