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. 15 of 52
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Earthenware dish, covered with a white slip and painted in red and in an olive-green slip under a yellowish glaze

Eastern Iran, Nishapur; 10th-11th century
H: 8; Diam: 38 cm

This dish is unusual in several respects. First of all, the decoration in white with red contours was reserved, i.e. the background was painted and not the pattern. The glaze’s yellowish tint came from the olive-green slip.

Secondly, the decoration on this dish and a related bronze dish are among the earliest examples of an arabesque (the stylized vegetal ornamentation that gives rise to an infinite number of new branches), which was to become one of Islamic art’s most frequent motifs. In this early arabesque, the most distinctive element is a large winged palmette, which is also found in Sasanian art.

Inv. no. 27/1962