MATERIALS

Materials

Ceramics

Ceramics

Within the field of ceramics, China was the great source of inspiration for the Middle East. Although Muslim potters never managed to make coveted porcelain, they did invent tin-glazed earthenware: faience. They further developed fritware, introduced lusterware and underglaze painting, and mastered many other decoration techniques.

In 13th-century Iran, there were so many different types of ceramics that no comparable variation was found until the 19th century, in Europe.

Although ceramics can break, it does not decompose and cannot be recycled, so this is the group of works of art from the Islamic world that is best preserved.

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ISLAMIC ART: CERAMICS

Islamic Art: Ceramics

Item no. 10 of 52
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Earthenware bowl, covered with a white slip and painted in black, yellow, and green under a transparent glaze

Eastern Iran, Nishapur; 10th century
H: 8.5; Diam: 22 cm

This colorful bowl belongs to a special group of ceramics that was produced at the same time as slip-painted types that were far simpler with regard to both color and motif. A horseman in chain mail lifting a sphere high in his right hand is riding off with something that could be viewed as a gigantic hunting falcon. He is surrounded by a dense forest of naturalistic, abstract, and non-figurative elements.

A great deal of energy has been expended on debating whether these bowls hark back to pre-Islamic traditions or were made for a specific social or ethnic group in Nishapur – but we still know nothing.

Inv. no. 25/1968