Spanish cabinet known as the "Ojo del Boticario" (Apothecary's Eye).

Anonymous
18th century

This painted cabinet is known as "The Apothecary's Eye"The central cupboard, which contained sixteen small drawers for storing the most precious drugs, was named after one of its parts. Two main leaves, with openwork latticework, the lower part of which is made of exposed wooden panels, open onto a set of sixty-five drawers with painted fronts and labelled with phylacteries in Latin. The set of drawers is arranged symmetrically in thirteen horizontal rows: the lowest row has two drawers, the one immediately behind has three and the remaining rows have six, except for the central three, in which two small doors, decorated with the coat of arms of Cardinal Tavera, occupy the space of six drawers and close the "apothecary's eye", which is the set of sixteen small drawers already mentioned. The fronts of all the drawers are decorated with miniatures of natural and architectural landscapes and flower baskets, predominantly in red, yellow and green.

Some of the drawers still contain traces of powdered garnets and lapis lazuli, and must have once held rubies, emeralds, white and pink coral, human skull bones, gold and other wonderful drugs and minerals from the pharmacopoeia of the time.

The inscription on the upper and lower margins of the doors reads "...".Siendo Administor / El Sr. D. Geronimo Rubio. "This allows us to correct the traditional dating of the seventeenth century that has been used since Feduchi to a later, more precise one, which would range from 1735 to 1752, the period during which Gerónimo Rubio Carrillo was administrator of the Tavera Hospital. 

TECHNIQUE

Painted

MATERIA

Wood, Iron

DIMENSIONS

Height: 213.00cm; Width: 126.00 cm

LOCATION

Tavera Hospital

REGISTRATION

On the doors of the "Apothecary's Eye": Siendo Administor / El Sr D. Geronimo Rubio.